Private patients cause delays for public health in NSW

Private patients are clogging the hospital system at the expense of public patients, according to Australia's private hospital lobby.

This "queue jumping" has hit record levels - with NSW worse than any other state - the Australian Private Hospitals Association (APHA) and Catholic Health Australia (CHA) said.

APHA chief executive Brett Heffernan said state governments were to blame for nearly 300,000 public patients "ramped" on waiting lists across Australia.

"If state governments prioritised public patients, waiting lists might soon not exist and ramping could be a thing of the past as more beds are freed up from those jumping the queue," Mr Heffernan said.

NSW had the longest planned surgery waiting list of any state, with 93,712 patients waiting for surgery.

A NSW Health spokespers