Little hospitals like Bulli would fare well under a pay-per-service federal funding system and it is a myth that small community hospitals are overly expensive to run, a Wollongong health researcher says.
Professor Kathy Eagar rejected suggestions the proposed payment model will shut down small sites because they won't attract enough payments to cover running costs.
"We don't have any evidence in NSW that the smaller hospitals cost more to run than the larger ones, quite the reverse," said Prof Eagar, professor of Health Services Research and director of the Centre for Health Service Development at the University of Wollongong.
EDITORIAL: Govt's health depends on hospital plan"The picture in NSW is that bigger hospitals cost more, even after adjusting for the mix of patients.
"Bulli Hospital, under this sort of model, will actually look very efficient."
The proposed model, known as casemix funding, is Prof Eagar's research specialty.
It assigns an "efficient" cost, determined by an independent umpire, to each service provided by a hospital, so that total funding depends on the number of services provided, and their level of difficulty.
Prof Eagar's comments are at odds with reports, sourced to NSW health officials, that up to 100 small community hospitals may become financially unviable under the reforms.
"What the Government actually said is that there will be different prices recognising that the cost of providing health care in different places is different," Prof Eagar said.
However, Minister for the Illawarra Paul McLeay remains cautious about how the reforms would impact on the region's small hospitals - Bulli, Coledale, Kiama and Port Kembla.
"The funding model proposed by the Commonwealth will need to take into account the increased costs that go with rural and regional hospitals," he said.
"At this stage the Federal Government's proposed plan hasn't gone into specific hospitals or specific regions."
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