WHILE people in developing countries struggle to access vaccines for themselves and their children, in Australia, where vaccines are freely available, there have been more than 2.7 million hospital bed-days billed to the taxpayer.
This is due to nearly 680,000 hospitalisations for the 22 conditions for which hospitalisation is considered potentially preventable, according to a new report from the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare.
The figure equates to 9% of all public and private hospital bed days.
Hospitalisation may have been prevented by timely and appropriate provision of primary or community-based health care, the report said,
"Reducing hospitalisations might involve vaccination, early diagnosis and treatment, and/or good ongoing management of risk factors and conditions in community settings," the Institute added.
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