Privatising healthcare

[SueDonim]

It kind of has been going on for a while now to some degree.
I know a couple of people who have had some elective surgery done at the private hospital but paid for through the public health system.
My gastroenterologist I see privately also works for the DHB, performing colonoscopies at the hospital and reportedly they are sending some patients to him privately too.
The biggest concern I have is that even if you are insured and wanting to see someone private, that there appears to be quite a wait even through the private system.
Im not sure whats going on, but my suspicion is that the private system is possibly overloaded with DHB patients being referred to them?

There are two important aspects of public/private partnership that were happening when I was still in the health sector.

One is what you experienced with your gastroenterologist. Pretty much all the public hospital consultants/surgeons also had their own private practices so whether you go public or private makes little difference in who does the procedures, or at least who the supervising senior doctor is.

The other is in the potential for getting the much needed new buildings. The DHB (as it was then) owned the land and leased it to the private provider who built a great new building, some of which was then leased back to the DHB. Win-win.  A few years before then when a new publicly funded building was built, in the media the MoH was praised for providing the new facility when the reality was that the DHB had to borrow the money from the MoH and be able to account for and show how it was to be paid back.