Private hospitals pick up DHB surgeries

New Zealanders will see ‘‘unprecedented’’ co-operation between private hospitals and district health boards, with the private sector picking up cancer and other surgeries to ease coronavirus pressure.

But there are fears for the future of the private sector with eight hospitals temporarily closing as services are scaled down.

The country’s 39 private hospitals were stopping their own elective surgeries to free up space for non-discretionary surgeries from the public sector, Richard Whitney, president of the Private Surgical Hospitals

Association, said. ‘‘That is a stream of work – [picking up] non-discretionary surgeries like cancers, and complications that can’t wait.’’

Southern Cross Hospitals would work with DHBS to assist with urgent electives, a spokeswoman said. The idea was to keep private hospitals free from any infected patients, leaving public hospitals more open to treat Covid-19.

The plans saw an unprecedented level of co-operation between the public and private sector across the country.

There had been co-operation regionally and in times of crisis, such as the White Island eruption and Christchurch earthquakes. But it was the ‘‘first time ever in the history of New Zealand’’ that the sectors had come together in this way, Whitney said. ‘‘The Spanish flu and the war . . . wouldn’t come close to it.’’

Work was under way with the Ministry of Health to clarify what non-discretionary surgeries would be picked up – with consistency across the country important.

Details around funding were still a work in progress, and Covid-19 was already hitting private hospitals in the pocket.

Ascot Hospital in Auckland had temporarily shutdown, as well as some Southern Cross Hospitals.