09/12/2025
The Australian Society of Anaesthetists (ASA) notes recent media reporting that seeks to confuse, cloud and mis-represent medical specialists through simplified and often emotive statements that lack clinical context. These portrayals do not reflect the reality of Australia’s world-class healthcare system—one that is globally recognised for its strong mix of public and private care and the high standards maintained across both sectors.
Anaesthetists in Australia provide over 2.6 million episodes of care each year, delivering individualised, high-quality, and safety-driven services that enable patients to undergo surgery, interventional procedures, childbirth, trauma management and complex pain treatments. This care is provided under some of the most rigorous regulatory, professional, and training standards internationally.
ASA President Dr Vida Viliunas said attempts to reduce the work of medical specialists to simplistic cost comparisons or commodity-style metrics ignore the breadth of expertise required to safely care for patients.
“Anaesthesia is not a commodity. It is a highly specialised medical discipline that requires years of training, real-time decision-making, and substantial clinical judgement,” Dr Viliunas said.
“Every patient we care for is unique. Our role is to assess risk, manage pain, ensure safety, and intervene immediately if complications arise. These are not tasks that can be trivialised or reduced to soundbites.”
Recent commentary has also overlooked the high levels of patient satisfaction with specialist care. Government data consistently shows that more than 95% of services delivered in the private system are provided at no-gap or known-gap arrangements, meaning patients are fully informed of any costs in advance or incur no additional out-of-pocket fees at all.
To read more of the media release, please go to the ASA website: https://asa.org.au/news-and-media/getting-to-the-facts-on-specialist-fees
