Private vs Public Hospital in New Zealand: What the Difference Looked Like for My Daughter

What is actually different between a private and a public hospital in New Zealand? Let me use my daughter’s recent minor surgery to show you.

Earlier this month she had her adenoids removed at a private hospital. The whole thing went through insurance and through the private system. Before the operation we saw two specialists for examination, diagnosis and a discussion of the options. The process was seamless — and it is worth comparing against what would have happened without health insurance.

1. Waiting times

As soon as I noticed the symptoms I asked our GP for a specialist referral, and the appointment came through very quickly. You know what healthcare access is like here at the moment: even a GP appointment is usually one to two weeks out. The specialist took less than a week — a shorter wait than the GP.

And because my daughter’s case was not serious or urgent, in the public system the specialist wait alone would likely have run into months. Even if they had eventually agreed to operate, the surgery date would have been somewhere over the horizon. She is still growing, and what worried me was the effect on her facial development. Timing matters here, and the longer it drags on the greater the impact.

The private pathway completed the whole course of treatment very fast. Publicly, we would most likely still be waiting on the first specialist appointment.

2. Whether you get to decide

Public hospital resources are stretched, so if your case is not serious or urgent you go to the back of the queue — or, if you do not meet their severity threshold, you are not accepted at all. Plenty of my clients have run into exactly this: the GP refers them to the public system and the public system sends them back.

My daughter’s enlarged adenoids were not a serious illness. Not operating would not have been a catastrophe. What concerned me was that without active treatment, the facial changes become irreversible, and that lasts a lifetime.

A note on enlarged adenoids

Briefly, in case this is useful to another parent. What I noticed was that she slept with her mouth open, breathing through her mouth, and her mouth was becoming more protruded — a bit rabbit-like, with her upper and lower teeth no longer meeting properly. I assumed at first it was a dental problem. It turned out to be enlarged adenoids blocking her airway. Left alone, this produces the irreversible facial changes sometimes called adenoid face.

If your child mouth-breathes, has prominent front teeth or a protruding mouth, please take it seriously and get their adenoids checked.

3. Choosing the specialist

The third point matters just as much. I am cautious and conservative about surgery, so I chose to see two different specialists for independent opinions. Both concluded the operation would do more good than harm, and on that basis we went ahead. I also chose which specialist we saw and which one operated.

In the public system, the specialist you are allocated is the specialist you see, and there is no real opportunity to seek a second opinion. The whole experience is a passive one.

Worth knowing: not every health policy allows more than one specialist opinion for the same condition. It is a point to check when you are buying cover.

What it cost

An excess came off the surgery, and insurance covered everything else.

If what you want is control over the timing and over who treats you, that — rather than the quality of the medicine — is what you are actually buying. I have written more about what health insurance buys you that ACC and the public system do not.

Want to understand what your health cover would do here? Get in touch with Cornerstone Insurance.

Phone: +64 211 280 727 Email: amy.tao@cornerstonefs.co.nz WeChat: Amytaoingrace