For healthcare leaders, capacity is often framed as a question of what needs to be added. More people, more services, more infrastructure and more investment are all part of responding to growing demand. Australia spent $270.5 billion on health in 2023–24, around 10 per cent of GDP, and hospitals accounted for $113.8 billion of that.
But there is another question that is becoming increasingly important at an organisational level: how much capacity does the organisation already have, and how effectively is its current operating model making that capacity available for care?
This shifts the conversation from simply finding more resources to understanding how the organisation is using the resources it already has. For executives responsible for performance, investment and service delivery, that distinction can influence where the next dollar is invested and what outcomes it is expected to deliver.
- Capacity is an organisational issue
- Seeing the constraints across the organisation
- A different approach to investment
- Measuring the value of change
- The opportunity ahead
