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Speaker 1: New Westpac report out this morning says we need to

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Speaker 1: send more public health procedures to the private system. We

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Speaker 1: spend about ten percent of our GDP on health the year,

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Speaker 1: seven percent public, three percent private. That's about the same

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Speaker 1: as the rest of the world. But the report argues

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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.

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Speaker 1: Chris, appreciate your time. This morn and Chris Roberts, the

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Speaker 1: Private Surgical Hospitals Association Chief Executive.

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Speaker 2: For more from Early Edition with Ryan Bridge. Listen live

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Speaker 2: to news talks.

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