Chris Wakeman: Christchurch colorectal and general surgeon on the additional elective medical procedures

Health New Zealand is outsourcing more elective operations to private facilities to ease strain on the system.  

The agency aims to deliver more than 10,500 additional elective procedures by the end of June, by partnering with private hospitals to expand surgical capacity. 

The target is within reach with more than 8,600 procedures complete since March.    

Christchurch colorectal and general surgeon Chris Wakeman told Mike Hosking that although he gets paid less to do public work, this is the future of healthcare.  

He says it's so much more efficient and you can do a lot more work. 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
We've got the elective boost scheme that was announced by
the government while back as an elective surgery. They've come
up with or produced an additional nine and a half
thousand procedures. Top of the list has been cataracts, hernias
and hips. Chris Wakeman is a colorectal and general surgeon
and as with us now public the private. This is
the thing that's perplexed me. If I need a hip,
where I get it done is irrelevant, isn't it?

Speaker 2 (00:23):
Yes? I think so.

Speaker 1 (00:24):
So where does the ak where where does the angst
come from? I don't understand it.

Speaker 2 (00:31):
We have a I work public, an private and for
the university Attago, so a little bit of anks comes
from training if we like yesterday, I did four public
cases on my private list and that was great. They
were very efficient. They've got done quickly. They got done

(00:51):
by consultant surgeon. But what about in fifteen years time
when I retire of the new surgeon coming through? Haven't
seen the simple stuff. The public hospitals are great for
doing complex multi surgeon procedures, but they are a dinosaur.
They're so inefficient.

Speaker 1 (01:11):
Right, you're doing them in private at the same cost
as the public so the public pays X number of
dollars and you can cover that off, so it's not
more expensive in private.

Speaker 2 (01:17):
In other words, while we as a surgeon and as
an ethist, as an atheist, we actually take a discount
price to do the public stuff, so a.

Speaker 1 (01:27):
Little bit of charity work, so it's cheaper.

Speaker 2 (01:29):
That was still it's cheap. Well, in public we're on
a feat we're on an hour on a yearly salary.
We're in private. It's a fee for service model, but
compared to my private operation, I'm getting paid less to
do public work.

Speaker 1 (01:46):
The capacity is explained by the Health minister. Is there
is capacity in the private sector where there isn't capacity
in the public system? Is this the future and should
we have a problem if it is?

Speaker 2 (01:58):
I think it is the future. I think it's a
lot more efficient. You can do a lot more work.
The rules on hours are not there. With the unions,
it's just so much more efficient. But we just need
to build a model where we can train our younger surgeons,
younger neathed us so they know how to do the
simple cases as well as the complex hard cases.

Speaker 1 (02:19):
When you look at public is there anything obvious that
you can magic wand that would help or not.

Speaker 2 (02:26):
We need to be more flexible in public about hours.
At public at four o'clock they start wandering around and
saying when will you be finished? Now? Will you be
closed in half an hour? They even come around at
one o'clock and say, it looks like you'll finish after
four four point thirty, so we won't let you do
your second case. You know as a color recorcision. You know,
I do sort of in public two major bower cases

(02:47):
a day. They take four to five hours. So if
I'm going slow in the first case, they might say
I can't do my second case, so that has to
wake a week until the next, which is just so inefficient.
You wouldn't close your factory at four o'clock if I
had work to do.

Speaker 1 (03:01):
M groomore interesting insight Chris appreciated pretty much. Apologies with
the phone once again, Chris Wakeman, who's christ Chitch Collorector
and general surgeon are nine and a half thousand procedures.
The reason I keep asking is that the labor party
keeps coming up with objections. They hate it, and as
you've just heard, it's cheaper in the private sector. They've
got capacity in the private sector, and you've just heard
how they run the public sector, and you wonder why
we got troubles.

Speaker 2 (03:21):
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Speaker 1 (03:25):
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