PUBLIC hospitals are admitting a higher proportion of people with complex, long-term medical conditions, national figures confirm, while private hospitals cement their role as venues for elective surgery.

The Australian Institute of Health and Welfare's annual hospital statistics illustrate a growing chasm between the public and private hospital systems but show NSW Health - despite its parlous financial condition - is doing as well as most other state health bodies and better than some on surgery waiting lists.

The figures are especially important this year because the states have agreed to having extra performance measures used to assess how much health funding they should receive from the Commonwealth.

Nationally three-quarters of public hospital admissions in 2007-08 were for non-surgical care - a growth of 16 per cent compared with five years ago. Surgery accounted for a diminishing proportion of public hospital admissions, growing at 9 per cent over the period.

In private hospitals, 41 per cent of admissions were for surgery - unchanged over the five years - but total admissions increased by 18 per cent, faster than in the public sector.

In both sectors, same-day admissions were increasing faster than overnight stays.

Of the 1.7 million operations classified as elective procedures, nearly two-thirds were performed in private hospitals.

In NSW, 87 per cent of people who joined elective surgery waiting lists at public hospitals eventually got their operation, waiting an average 39 days. About one in 170 people had to be admitted for an emergency procedure before they reached the top of the waiting list - a similar proportion to the other large states. Two per cent of NSW public elective patients waited more than a year for their operation, but this was lower than other states.