Scandal-riddled hospital will return to public hands
A struggling hospital will officially fall into public hands after months of scandal and financial turmoil.
Sydney’s Northern Beaches Hospital has come under fire following the death of two-year-old Joe Massa, who died after he and his family waited three hours in the emergency room.
Community outrage and advocacy, led by parents Elouise and Danny Massa, led the NSW government to pass “Joe’s Law”, which banned future private-public hospital partnerships.
NSW Premier Chris Minns confirmed the Labor government had reached an agreement with Healthscope, which acts as trustee and runs the hospital’s utilities.
“Our state’s acute hospital services, which provide life-saving care to the people of New South Wales, should not be privatized and thanks to this decision, no hospital in NSW will be privatised,” he said in a statement on Wednesday.
“We have reversed one of the worst decisions of any NSW government, where the private hospital model was imposed on the people of the Northern Beaches.”
Under the agreement, the hospital will return to public ownership, all clinical and support staff currently working at the hospital will receive job offers from NSW Health and staff rights will be transferred.
The transition is expected to occur in mid-2026.
A report into the hospital in April found that the public-private partnership created tensions between healthcare and profits and accused management of failing to take adequate action to stop clinical safety risks.
Healthscope operates 37 hospitals across the country and was originally contracted to run the Northern Beaches institution until 2038.
It had approached the government to try to terminate the $2 billion contract in 2023, citing insufficient funding, poor health network integration and other reasons.
While the state government will pay Healthscope $190 million for the transfer deal, NSW Finance Minister Daniel Mookhey stressed there would be no windfall for the provider or its investors at the expense of taxpayers.
“This agreement delivers what the Northern Beaches community has been demanding: a publicly run hospital that puts patients before profits,” he said.
Newborn Harper Atkinson died after receiving treatment at the facility in February; his mother believed that waiting an hour for surgery contributed to his death.
Teenager James Tsindos died at a separate hospital run by Healthscope in Melbourne, leaving his family with questions about his death. An investigation is investigating whether he received appropriate medical care.
