Hospital sold, but specialist services under a cloud
As the State Government moves to take back ownership of Northern Beaches Hospital (NBH), private specialists are frustrated about the lack of discussion on their future at the facility.
Healthscope and the government made an ‘in principle’ agreement on 21 October worth $190 million to hand back the whole hospital early.
A Cabinet decision on which model will replace the current public-private partnership is rumoured to be just weeks away, with NSW Health Minister Ryan Park saying in October he ‘understands’ that doctors and locals ‘would like to see private services continue to be delivered there.’
However, NBH Medical Advisory Committee chair David Jollow said the minister had not reached out to doctors about their place in the new model.
“They’ve never at any point actually come to us to ask what we think is the best way to do things.
“We want the same as we’ve got now. We want the public health system to do what it’s good at, which is looking after the emergency department.
“What they’re not as good at is elective operations and getting through waiting lists, which is what the private system is really good at.
“The private system is geared to people getting their operations done and (this means) there’s less elective waiting lists for public patients.”
Pittwater MP Jacqui Scruby successfully amended a motion in Parliament on 21 October to make the government keep negotiating with private specialists on their inclusion in the hospital when the handover takes place by mid-2026. Ms Scruby said that given 75% of Northern Beaches locals had private health insurance, they wanted to ensure services remained at NBH.
“The government must ensure private services remain and reassure the community that both public and private
services will flourish.”
It is believed that one of Australia’s largest health operators Ramsay is interested in running the private part of the hospital for the state. Around 40% of services at the hospital are private.
Dr Jollow said the hospital was ‘chockers’ with no empty beds, a sign of ongoing trust by the community. “The hospital has a fantastic record and the statistics prove that we do things very, very well.
“We’ve pulled in lots of really good medical and nursing staff to work here because they can do that (specialist work). We don’t want to lose that. And that’s a possibility that if the hospital (becomes) 100% public – we’ll lose a lot of those services that were built up over the last seven years.”
Elouise Massa has been campaigning for a hospital handback following the death of her toddler Joe who lost his life after multiple failings in the hospital’s emergency department. Ms Massa told PL the moment was ‘bittersweet.’ “We would do anything to have Joe back, but we can’t and this campaign has meant so much to us because we chose not to be silent and speak up so that other families don’t go through the heartache that we’re going through.
“Once the deal is done, I really hope that the community has confidence to attend the hospital, because when it’s in public hands, it’s going to be a much safer emergency department.”
The deal comes just days after hearings started at the Parliamentary Inquiry into safety and quality of health services at the hospital. Elouise and Danny Massa will attend the inquiry in November.
“I don’t think we’ll ever stop grieving, and perhaps we’ll never stop feeling this pain. We just have to learn to live with it,” Ms Massa said.
“We have such an immense courage to keep speaking up in a way that we believe is right and just and good, not only for us as a family, but for the community.”
