Doctors warn a loss of private beds at Sydney’s Northern Beaches hospital would mean less expertise and fewer services at the facility. This evening the minister met with clinicians desperate for answers about what the public takeover means for their patients, who are mostly private
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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