Building your private practice

So you’ve set yourself up in private practice. What now? How do you get more work and build your practice? This is the question that everyone wants the answer to. As with any other business, there are always challenges to building your practice. For an anaesthetist, your clients are the surgeons you work with, and to build your practice, you need to build on this network of surgeons.

Following are some practical tips that will help build your anaesthetic private practice:

  1. Setting up a Medicare provider number for your private work, one that will enable you to work at any hospital location is best. If you don’t have consulting suites, you may want to set up a different number for each hospital you are accredited to work at.

  2. Get an appointment at a public hospital, as well as providing you with a regular income, is a great way to build your network. Working in the public health system will allow you to work with many surgeons, and if you work well together, let them know you are available for private work. Give them a business card that they can pass onto their practice for any lists where they are looking for an anaesthetist. You’ll also be working with other anaesthetists to build those relationships and let them know you can cover their private lists if they are unwell or go on leave.

  3. Set up accreditation at the private hospitals in your area. These often have some affiliation with the local public hospitals, and you may find a crossover with surgeons working at both. Without accreditation at the private hospital, you won't be able to accept lists from surgeons working in their theatres, so work out where you want to work and contact the hospital to get the appropriate approvals to work in their theatres.

  4. Be available for list cover. Speak with your peers to see how they find cover for lists they cannot attend. You will find that there are local chat groups (WhatsApp, Signal, etc.) for anaesthetists looking for list cover. These are often based on region, hospital group or surgical speciality.

  5. Say yes to lists as much as you can. Remember that a single case with a surgeon that you enjoy working with may lead to a regular list and will build on your network. This is also an opportunity to get to know the theatre bookings team, who often assist surgeons in finding anaesthetists to cover lists at short notice.

  6. Deliver best practice services to all of your customers, this includes surgeons, hospitals and patients. You are the product you are selling. By providing excellent service, stakeholders will be asking you back for more work. Think of all of the steps involved in delivering high-quality anaesthetic services, from booking a list with the surgeon and their practice through to your interactions with the patients, contacting patients before surgery for informed financial consent and talking to them about the anaesthetic process to put them at ease on the day of surgery and your interactions with them before and after surgery.

Starting your private practice takes time and perseverance. Get your name out there and provide excellent service; your practice will take flight over time.