National looks at vouchers for private surgery 

Paul Hutchison

Discount vouchers for patients to have elective surgery in private hospitals and bypass public waiting lists may be considered by a National-led government.

A Herald source said health spokesman Paul Hutchison had suggested people be given a state voucher for private treatment if they qualified for public hospital surgery but the hospital was unable to provide it within the benchmark six months.

Private hospitals support the idea and say they have the capacity to do the extra work.

Health Minister Annette King has refused to comment until National comes out with a policy detailing costs and how it would work.

Dr Hutchison confirmed that he had canvassed people in the health sector about the idea, but said the party had no plan "at this stage" to proceed with it.

But when asked if National would look at it again in government, he said, "Yeah. We wouldn't rule it out."

"Anything that we would be doing we would want to make sure has a clear benefit to the public [and to the whole health sector] and gives choice and value for money."

He was unwilling to explain fully why National was not pressing ahead with the idea at this stage, but when asked about its reception by the sector, he said, "There was considerable enthusiasm for and some concern against. I would prefer not to go any further than that."

Dr Hutchison said the vouchers would be funded from existing health money rather than involving an increase. They would be aimed at increasing efficiency and productivity.

The concept was similar to an Accident Compensation Corporation scheme in which ACC paid a patient's costs to go to a private, accredited hospital for elective surgery.

More than 85 per cent of ACC funded elective surgery was done privately.

Andrew Blair, chief executive of Royston Hospital in Hastings and immediate past-president of the Private Hospitals Association, said vouchers had been discussed with Dr Hutchison in the past six months and he was delighted it was still being considered as an option.

Mr Blair said the private sector had the capacity and it would provide the public with certainty about their surgery.

It would also encourage efficiencies in the public system if a health board lost funding for patients for whom it was unable to provide timely surgery.

Mr Blair said the idea had been floated with health insurers who could potentially offer a new product aimed at covering any shortfall between the voucher and the cost of surgery privately.

Dr Richard Fisher, chairman of Mercy Ascot, said its hospitals, which already did some public work, had the capacity to do more but needed to be able to plan for it long term.

Likewise, Dr Ian McPherson, group chief executive of Southern Cross, who said most of the organisation's 13 hospitals had done some public work and would be happy to do more if it meant more people had better access to healthcare.

Kim Miles, chief executive of the New Zealand Orthopaedic Association, said the association had encouraged National to look at further expansion into the private sector.

Although the Government was putting an additional $70 million into joint replacement surgery over four years he questioned whether the public sector could handle the number of procedures expected of it.

Dr Hutchison said National had discussed its health policy principles with the sector, but they did not constitute the party's health policy, which was yet to be released.

Dr Hutchison promised that National would not foist further major restructuring on the sector.