Across every state and territory, the picture from the Australian Medical Association on the health system is bleak.
Of the 48 key hospital measures assessed, 40 were listed as "fails" and only three came out as positives.
The association's president, Dr Michael Gannon, says when it comes to patient waiting times for emergency treatment and elective surgery, the news is universally bad.
"Sadly, there is a fail across the country. We are seeing these internationally recognised benchmarks of performance, according to the government's own data. There's no spin here. This is data that comes from the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare. It comes from the jurisdictions themselves. The state and territories are required to produce this data. And it shows a system that, at the very best, is flatlining, in many areas is going backwards. Patients must be at risk if they're waiting longer to be seen."
Dr Gannon says there is nothing in the report to suggest health workers are failing to do their jobs properly.
"But year on year, they've been asked to do more with less. It is absolutely crystal-clear that, in real terms, there is a fall in funding. A funding model that asserts the population growth and CPI is enough is not going to be adequate. It's inadequate, because of the increasing cost of technology."
Only two-thirds of urgent cases in emergency departments were seen within the recommended 30 minutes.
And almost three out of 10 patients were forced to wait more than four hours in emergency.
That figure has remained unchanged over the past three years and is well short of targets.
Australian governments agreed that, by 2013, 80 per cent of emergency patients should be seen within clinically recommended triage times.
The report calls for an urgent $7.9 billion funding injection and, Dr Gannon says, an end to the squabbling between the federal government and the states over health funding.
"What we need is to stop the blame game, to stop this unedifying annual spectacle of state and territory health ministers, treasurers, premiers and chief ministers arguing with the Commonwealth. For the Commonwealth to say that CPI and population growth is sufficient is failing to recognise that the costs of healthcare outstrip inflation in every other part of the economy."
Dr Gannon says the drop off in private health insurance cover is putting an intolerable burden on the public hospital system.
"Here we have an example of a system that is under so much strain that it's failing to meet its own targets in every jurisdiction in Australia, and, at the same time, we have people questioning the value of their private health insurance and voting with their feet. Part of the fix is to make sure that those Australians of means continue to use private hospitals where appropriate."
When it comes to elective surgery, waiting times have increased over the past decade.
The latest figures put the average time in the queue at 37 days, the longest since 2002.
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