00:00He's the bee's knees of orthopaedics at Northern Beaches Hospital.
00:06This is your bread and butter.
00:08Yeah, knee replacements are predominantly what I do now.
00:11Nearly all of Dr David Dickerson's patients are private.
00:15If private services close at the hospital, will you still operate here?
00:19No, very unlikely.
00:20The hybrid private public hospital is turning fully public after the collapse of operator Healthscope.
00:26It has almost 500 beds. What the transition means for the 200 private ones is uncertain.
00:32We haven't got a model yet that we're all signed up to.
00:36Industry data shows more than 70% of people in the area have health insurance.
00:41If we take away private services, then all the private patients are going to have to travel across Sydney.
00:47I think the public patients will certainly also be impacted. The wait lists are likely to increase.
00:53Breast surgeon Dr Karen Shaw says there will be less expertise on hand if senior specialists move to other hospitals.
01:00Like anything in medicine, unexpected things happen. Complex cases come through the emergency department.
01:05If they strike a challenging case, I'm next door. They walk next door and I will come in and help them.
01:12With the transition to public hands due by mid next year, clinicians say time for a decision on private services is running out.
01:19For private surgeries booked 12 months in advance, they're no longer able to tell patients whether they'll be operated on here or at another hospital.
01:28Our intention is to try and make sure that there are private services available at that facility.
01:33The government take over, already proving to be a complex operation.
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