Newcastle Private Hospital has hit a milestone of 1000 heart operations within a decade.
The hospital's cardiac unit opened in 2014 to meet demand for cardiothoracic surgeries in the Hunter Region.
Dr Jivesh Choudhary, who performed the 1000th surgery, said he was proud of the achievement.
"Providing a cardiothoracic service like the one we do takes an incredible team effort," Dr Choudhary said, citing the work of fellow surgeons and nurses.
Intensive care nurse unit manager Lisa Slade says helping patients through heart surgery is rewarding.
She said it was pleasing when patients get taken off a ventilator after surgery and "they're sitting in a chair the next day and their family comes to see them".
"Being a patient in intensive care and a relative is very traumatic. It's not a pleasant time.
"We try to make that time the best we can for our patients and their relatives."
The Newcastle Herald reported recently that more specialists were choosing to work only in the private system.
However, Newcastle Private's three cardiothoracic surgeons - Dr Choudhary, Dr Peng Seah and Dr Taranpreet Singh - work in the public system, as well as the private.
Newcastle Private has also partnered with the public system over the past year to help reduce surgery waiting lists that worsened during the pandemic.
Healthscope, the company that owns the hospital, entered into a contract with the public system for this work, which has been occurring across Australia.
Newcastle Private general manager Glen Auld says public and private systems are dependent on each other.
"We need the private and public systems working together because demand is growing exponentially as we age," Mr Auld said.
The Australian Medical Association [AMA] NSW has linked long surgery waiting lists in public hospitals to difficulties in "attracting and retaining staff".
The AMA highlighted that the NSW government is "constrained by the public sector wages cap".
It has called for healthcare wages to be boosted to keep up with the cost of living, and new employment awards for doctors that reflect current working conditions.
"NSW doctors are among the lowest paid in the country with conditions dating back to the 1980s," AMA NSW president Dr Michael Bonning said in March.
"Award and contract conditions must be updated to attract and retain the best and brightest in our public hospital system."
Asked why some specialists opt to work only in the private system, Mr Auld said "there's a multitude of factors".
"People are at different stages of their career. Some have worked in the public system, have done their time and they're reducing their loads.
"Some people want to work in the public system, but there's no jobs in that area for whatever reason."
As for Newcastle Private, Mr Auld said it will do more than 15,000 operations this year.
"Our partnership with the doctors is the biggest thing. We can't exist without our doctors and our doctors can't exist without us," he said.
"A lot of these surgeons are at the cutting edge of new techniques and technologies coming through.
"Healthscope is investing heavily in infrastructure and technology and new types of surgeries."
