Latest / Early Edition with Ryan Bridge / Chris Roberts: Private Surgical Hospitals Association CEO on the report finding the private health sector has the capacity to ease the burden on public health

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Chris Roberts: Private Surgical Hospitals Association CEO on the report finding the private health sector has the capacity to ease the burden on public health · Early Edition with Ryan Bridge

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: New Westpac report out this morning says we need to
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: send more public health procedures to the private system. We
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: spend about ten percent of our GDP on health the year,
• 0:09
  Speaker 1: seven percent public, three percent private. That's about the same
• 0:12
  Speaker 1: as the rest of the world. But the report argues
• 0:14
  Speaker 1: that specialized treatments could go private, cutting wake times, improving outcomes.
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  Speaker 1: Chris Roberts, New Zealand Private Surgical Hospitals Associations CEO, with
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  Speaker 1: me this morning. Chris, good morning, Good morning, Ryan. Has
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  Speaker 1: Westpac had the nail on the head here?
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  Speaker 2: Well, I don't think there's any surprises in these conclusions
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  Speaker 2: from Westpac. New Zealand's had a mixed private public health
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  Speaker 2: system for a very long time. Private hospitals have been
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  Speaker 2: around for one hundred years in New Zealand, and we
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  Speaker 2: are being called on more and more, and that's because
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  Speaker 2: we do have the capabilities. We deliver quality care and
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  Speaker 2: we can take pressure off the public health system.
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  Speaker 1: And the government's already doing this with hips and knees
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  Speaker 1: and a bunch of other stuff more frequently now than previously.
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  Speaker 1: Is that the reports is there's lots of capacity. I mean,
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  Speaker 1: do we have surgeons sitting around twiddling their thumbs in private.
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  Speaker 2: No, we don't, but we do have private hospitals investing.
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  Speaker 2: They've invested heavily over the last few years into new facilities,
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  Speaker 2: new operating sizes. They don't tend to have the staffing
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  Speaker 2: issues that some of the public hospitals do, so they
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  Speaker 2: are looking to provide a bigger service. And of course
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  Speaker 2: the private hospitals as well as the insurance patients that
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  Speaker 2: they look after, they've long done most of the ACC surgery.
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  Speaker 2: So about ninety percent of the surgery done under the
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  Speaker 2: ACC scheme happens in private hospitals. And currently about twenty
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  Speaker 2: percent of the Health New Zealand patients, those on the
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  Speaker 2: elective surgery waiting list, it's about twenty percent get seam
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  Speaker 2: in the private hospital. And I can tell you if
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  Speaker 2: you're on that public waiting list and you get told
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  Speaker 2: that you're going to get your long awaited surgery in
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  Speaker 2: a private hospital, you're pretty happy about that.
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  Speaker 1: No one's going to say no to a knee now, Chris,
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  Speaker 1: what's the public system getting so wrong when it comes
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  Speaker 1: to efficiency or are you actually doing very different things
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  Speaker 1: and therefore they can't cop all the blame.
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  Speaker 2: Oh, look, the public system is trying to be everything
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  Speaker 2: to everybody, so it's dealing with acute surgery emergency needs.
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  Speaker 2: Private hospitals are all about planned care, so they're not
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  Speaker 2: doing that emergency service. They can plan their week, they're
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  Speaker 2: month ahead of they know which patients are coming in
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  Speaker 2: for surgery. They're incredibly efficient at looking after those patients
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  Speaker 2: and that's why it makes sense for those planned surgeries
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  Speaker 2: to happen in a private facility. It's far more efficient,
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  Speaker 2: it's more cost effective, and critically, it gives the patient
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  Speaker 2: a better experience when they're going to get your surgery,
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  Speaker 2: that they're not going to get pushed off the list
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  Speaker 2: several times have to prepare for surgery and miss out
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  Speaker 2: and come back again. When you get booked into a
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  Speaker 2: private hospital, you know when you're going to have your
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  Speaker 2: surgery and you get it.
• 3:14
  Speaker 1: Chris, appreciate your time. This morn and Chris Roberts, the
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  Speaker 1: Private Surgical Hospitals Association Chief Executive.
• 3:20
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• 3:23
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• 3:24
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• 3:27
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