Dr John Petrie, a surgeon who dramatically reduced his NHS waiting lists, is moving to work in Switzerland.

Surgeon praised by Blair gives up on UK - Sunday Telegraph

Extract:

"Mr Petri has now announced he is leaving for Switzerland because nobody in the NHS has shown any interest in the practice. In Switzerland Mr Petri will earn £70,000 a year, as against the £125,000 he is paid by the NHS, a cut of £55,000 or a 44 per cent pay cut.

"I'm disillusioned because I worked on cutting waiting lists for years and achieved something significant," he said. "People told me 'You will never get there, this is impossible'. But when the results were evident I met Tony Blair, and [the Health Secretary] Patricia Hewitt. And then nothing happened."

Italian-born Mr Petri, 52, moved to Britain in 1994 having started his career in France. He quickly identified the British surgeons' habit of taking breaks between operations as one of the key factors in NHS waiting lists.

He began to employ French working methods by starting to operate earlier in the day, extending shifts by up to two hours, and introducing a "production line" system. He uses two anaesthetists, which means that there is always another patient ready to be operated on.

"People were waiting a year to have a hip replacement," he said. "By the end of the pilot scheme, they were waiting three weeks.

"Under the standard method, you wouldn't believe how badly things were organised. We have to find a way of surgeons not wasting their time. A surgeon is the most important link in the chain."

Mr Petri estimates that he can do five hip or knee replacements a day, compared with his colleagues' one or two. "People in the NHS are not paid by results," he explained. "If you do five operations or 500, you are paid the same."

I have always understood that surgeons make sure there are waiting lists in this country so that, in order to get treated sooner, patients will pay them for private treatment...


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