Private specialists working under the new public Northern Beaches Hospital management lament that many of their colleagues will continue to “jump ship” amid uncertainty and unworkable changes.
The tender process for the search for a new private sector operator won’t be complete until June next year. Dr David Dickison, a senior surgeon at the hospital says the current structure one month into the transition is not inspiring confidence among private doctors.
“There’s certainly concerns, particularly watching the numbers of operations going down in the hospital. So, a lot of the private doctors are moving themselves out of the hospital, that’s for certain,” Dr Dickison told Manly Observer.
“A lot of the private doctors are moving themselves out of the hospital, that’s for certain.”
Despite these broader concerns, the surgeon says his practice remains unaffected and the transition has gone well, overall, acknowledging NSW Health Minister Ryan Park had done a great job clearing the first hurdle in the hospital’s restructure. But a plan of action for what’s to become of the private services after the 12-month ‘business as usual’ was needed quickly if highly experienced staff are to stay for the long haul.
With the transition to public has come a loss of some private services, despite prior political assurances.
There will no longer be private beds for mental health patients, and all emergency neurosurgeries and consults will also be transferred to Royal North Shore Hospital as well as limitations put on the majority of elective surgeries able to be performed.
The neurology department would conduct approximately 200 procedures a year. Since the hospital’s public transition over a month ago, there has been reportedly a drastic decrease.
Under NSW Health’s new model, spinal surgeries at the hospital can be performed, however, only if its minimum facility requirements are in place, a standard that is currently not met for the procedures to go ahead; with surgeons being powerless to change it.
Dr Dickison says over the past 12 months operating theatres – shared by both the public and private sector – are at about two thirds of the capacity where they were a year ago. Still, he remains hopeful both public and private services can meet patient needs.
“It’s a matter of waiting and seeing. If [staff enthusiasm] will pick back up again, they’re gonna have to use some very good management skills to get everyone back up and firing and working at full speed,” he said.
Northern Beaches Hospital: from private experiment to public hands
