Free specialist consultations helping improve health access via Braemar Charitable Trust
Specialists donating hours of time from their private practice are enabling Braemar Charitable Trust to provide free consultation clinics to help patients receive treatment through the public system.
The Trust is already known for its Community Surgery Programme, under which 159 people had free procedures or surgeries in the financial year ended 31 March 2025.
Trust Manager Paula Baker says while the free surgery programme relieves pressure on the public system relating to surgeries, the initial assessment by the specialist is just as important to determine what if any, treatment the patients require.
The Trust is the 100% owner of Braemar Hospital, one of the largest private hospitals in New Zealand and its vison is to improve health access and equity. Specialists (surgeons and anaesthetists) must be credentialed to provide procedures at Braemar and many support the Trust by donating their theatre time for free surgeries.
Ms Baker says some specialists who work at Waikato Hospital, and who also have private practices, have provided free initial specialist consultations in the community, donating a total of 29 hours of time from their private practices since 1 April this year.
The Trust has enabled since April:
14 people to be seen in a community clinic to have skin lesions checked.
20 people have had specialist consultations for general surgeries or have had haemorrhoid banding performed in a community clinic.
A further eight women have had a specialist gynaecological consultation.
These consultations would have all cost several hundred dollars each in the private system.
“We know accessing health services isn’t easy when we have systems under pressure. We are very pleased our Community Surgery Programme can help so many people access the surgeries they require, but we also know there are many people who are on waiting lists just to get their first consultation.
“A consultation with a specialist sometimes determines that people actually don’t need further treatment, so they can go on with their lives, and that frees up a space for someone else from the waiting list to be seen. For those who do need further treatment, we hope this enables them to receive treatment through the public system more quickly,” Ms Baker says.
“We are in a unique position in that we own a private hospital, and we can contribute pragmatically to help the wider system, and address timeliness of care. This is all through specialists donating their time to the Trust for both consultations and surgeries, and our hospital providing drugs, supplies and consumables at cost.”
She says the free private consultations have a multiplier effect. “If we take eight people off a public waiting list for their first consultation, through time donated by a Braemar specialist, that actually means 16 people are impacted because another eight people are seen sooner on the public waiting list.”
Braemar Charitable Trust has a range of activities that deliver on its charitable purpose to advance healthcare equity and access and improve health outcomes in our community. The Trust’s three key pillars of charitable purpose, in addition to its ownership of Braemar Hospital, are providing free surgeries, building healthcare capability, and helping fund medical research. Braemar Hospital pays an annual dividend to the Trust so it can undertake these activities.
In the most recent financial year ended 31 March 2025, Braemar Charitable Trust enabled 159 free surgeries for those in need, an increase of 124% on the previous year. The Trust spent $88,000 on associated costs but estimates these surgeries and procedures would have cost $500,000 in real terms.
Already in the first four months of this financial year, the Trust has spent $36,000 on 61 free surgeries and procedures performed by specialists adding free surgeries to their existing Braemar Hospital surgery lists, or through community-based initiatives. These surgeries and procedures happen year-round as part of the Trust’s kaupapa of advancing health equity and access.
Surgery recipients are referred by specialists, GPs, dentists and nurse practitioners as well community health providers and are aimed at people who have been declined or have little chance of surgery within a reasonable time frame in the public system, and who don’t have insurance, ACC, nor the financial means to pay for the procedure in the private system.
Braemar Charitable Trust has also made it simple for anyone to donate to its work via an online donations portal where donors can choose to fund a specific procedure.
To find out more about the Trust, visit the website.
ENDS
Media inquiries – not for publication. For more information contact:
Paula Baker MNZM
Trust Manager, Braemar Charitable Trust
027 224 2316
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