Dr Mackie maintains an Orthopaedic surgical appointment at The Royal Hobart Hospital, providing weekly clinic and operative services. He remains dedicated to providing ongoing public health surgical services, including ongoing training of staff and the provision of emergency services.
Dr Mackie is also the Head of Department of Orthopaedics at the Royal Hobart Hospital, with a complement of 13 orthopaedic surgeons and 5 training orthopaedic surgeons.
The majority of paediatric services provided by Dr. Mackie require assessment and review at his Royal Hobart Hospital outpatient clinic. Many orthopaedic conditions unique to children do not require surgery but may require specific medical imaging or support services (such as paediatric physiotherapy or brace services). These services are provided at the Royal Hobart Hospital and are not easily accessible outside of the RHH. Dr. Mackie's clinic is generally attended by these support services as well, thus allowing close interaction between staff and more appropriate monitoring or treatment for children at the clinic.
Some conditions may subsequently be monitored via Dr. Mackie's private consulting rooms, but only once he is satisfied that the services available at the Royal Hobart Hospital will no longer be required.
Almost all children referred to Dr. Mackie who may require surgical intervention for their condition will have their referral forwarded by Dr. Mackie's office staff to the Royal Hobart Hospital (or a general practitioner referral may be primarily directed to the hospital). Priority is given to the assessment of paediatric conditions based on standard "triage principles", with Dr. Mackie shown the paediatric referrals at the RHH and nominating appropriate timeframes for assessment.
There is very limited nursing and equipment support for the provision of surgery to children in the private hospitals within Tasmania. Dr Mackie can perform some paediatiric surgical procedures at Calvary Hospital in children older than ~ 11 years, but will have to assess for this on a case-by-case basis.
Dr. Mackie regularly reviews the orthopaedic surgical waiting lists at the Royal Hobart Hospital and some priority is given to the timely treatment of paediatric surgical conditions, which have the potential to change if not treated. Despite this, Dr. Mackie's waiting list for adult elective orthopaedic surgical conditions is no longer than those of other surgeons at the RHH. This is because of a greater number of children being seen in his RHH outpatient clinic (not requiring surgery) and thus fewer adult patients being assessed and placed onto a surgical waiting list.
The Royal Hobart Hospital does not provide any "private" operating sessions or access to surgical lists in which surgeons may operate on privately insured patients. The hospital will ask patients to utilise any private health insurance when being admitted (to provide revenue to the hospital) however the admission is a private "Bed-stay only" process and does not include access to private health insurance services such as a guarantee of specific surgeon etc.
Dr. Mackie will operate upon Paediatric patients on the waiting list at the RHH in conjunction with a senior orthopaedic registrar (who will often then provide much of the postoperative review on the ward). Dr. Mackie will provide the ongoing outpatient care and review in his Friday RHH outpatient clinic.
Any queries regarding the surgical waiting list at the Royal Hobart Hospital should be directed to the Orthopaedic department of the hospital, as there is no access to the administrative details from within Dr. Mackie's private consulting rooms.
