Uncertainty over private services remains
The receivers of Healthscope and the State Government have signed an agreement to hand over the Northern Beaches Hospital on 29 April, 2026.
The agreement was made the week beginning 8 December, but NSW Health Minister Ryan Park did not announce it on 16 December, as scheduled, because of sensitivity to the tragic Bondi massacre.
Under the $190 million agreement, Healthscope will exit its contract to manage the 494-bed hospital 12 years early (with the private side originally contracted until 2058). The Northern Sydney Local Health District (NSLHD) will manage the hospital from this time, but it is as yet unclear what will happen to the 40% of private specialist services at the site.
Dr David Swan, former CEO of St Vincent’s Private, has been appointed to advise NSLHD on the feasibility for private services and has already visited NBH several times, including Friday 12 December for a ‘town hall’ meeting with all staff. It is expected a new Clinical Services Plan for the hospital will be complete in three months.
Until the April handover, Healthscope will continue to manage the hospital and assist with the transition. General staff have already been issued letters of offer for their new contracts with NSW Health, with medical staff expected to receive theirs in January.
NBH Medical Advisory Committee chair David Jollow said there was some urgency to resolve what would happen to private services at the hospital. “We want some clear assurances on what the private side will look like by the end of January,” Dr Jollow said. “We need certainty about what’s going to happen with private services come the handover. And if it’s going to be what we think – private work in a public hospital – then we need to understand what that works like from a waitlist elective point of view. And then we need to know what the plans are for a potential new private operator in the future.”
Dr Jollow doubted any potential private operator would be found before 29 April, putting many services in doubt. This includes those only offered on a private basis at NBH, including neurosurgery, maxillofacial, paediatric and use of the Da Vinci robot for surgery, including for gynaecology work.
While none of the NBH specialists had left yet, many were concerned that they may not be able to operate in future at NBH because they can only do private work at the hospital – for example, plastic surgeons who do cosmetic surgery, which is not allowed at public hospitals.
If private services were no longer available, Northern Beaches residents – of whom 75% have private health insurance – would need to travel to places like the SAN in Wahroonga or the Mater in North Sydney, a long way for those who live in the Pittwater area, especially for women in labour.
“They got rid of Manly and Mona Vale hospitals to open up NBH. But part of the payoff for that was that we could get a lot of this (surgery) done locally,” Dr Jollow said. “And then if you (say) we can’t do them anymore, that’s what’s going to upset people.”