Northern Beaches Hospital: Health Minister Ryan Park vows to return troubled facility to ‘public hands’

NSW Health Minister Ryan Park has vowed the state government will “do anything we can” to make sure the troubled Northern Beaches Hospital will “come back into public hands”.

NSW Health Minister Ryan Park speaks at the community forum on the future of the troubled Northern Beaches Hospital held at the Dee Why RSL on Wednesday night. Picture: Jonathan Ng

NSW Health Minister Ryan Park has vowed the state government will “do anything we can” to make sure the troubled Northern Beaches Hospital will “come back into public hands”.

Mr Park spoke on Wednesday night at a special community forum, organised to discuss the future of the hospital run by private company Healthscope.

The hospital at Frenchs Forest is part of a long-term contract with the government to provide public health and emergency department services on the northern beaches.

But it has been at the centre of a series of damaging medical tragedies, including the death of 22-month-old Joe Massa, who attended the ED in September last year.

An internal inquiry found Joe died after receiving incorrect treatment, waiting more than two-and-a-half hours for a bed despite a dangerously high heart beat.

Elouise and Danny Massa, holding the shoes of their son Joe, who tragically died at Northern Beaches Hospital, after the community forum on Wednesday. Picture: Jonathan Ng

Elouise Massa, with her husband Danny, holding the shoes of her 2-year-old son Joe, who tragically died at Northern Beaches Hospital. Picture: Jonathan Ng

His mother Elouise’s pleas for intravenous fluids had been rejected and he later went into cardiac arrest.

Local independent state MPs Michael Regan and Jacqui Scruby, both strong advocates for the hospital to be operated by NSW Health, organised the public question and answer session, attended by about 450 people, with Mr Park and NSW Treasurer Daniel Mookhey at Dee Why RSL Club.

Northern Beaches Hospital nurse Sheriden Brady asks a question. Picture: Jonathan Ng

Mr Regan, who pushed for an independent audit into the hospital, said it was an opportunity for locals to directly quiz the senior cabinet members on what may happen to the hospital.

Mr Park confirmed the state government had launched a taskforce to examine the hospital’s “disastrous” public-private partnership and ways the public component of the hospital, which also offers private health services, could be run by NSW Health.

Earlier this year, Healthscope announced it wished to hand back the hospital to the public system, after the government said, in March, it would ban future public-private partnerships at acute care hospitals in NSW.

And the forum comes just days after Healthscope announced it was seeking to sell all its 38 hospitals, including Northern Beaches.

NSW Treasurer Daniel Mookhey at the community forum. Picture: Jonathan Ng

Mr Mookhey has previously said the government would speak with Healthscope management “after questions of its ownership and whether it remains a going concern are resolved”.

Mr Park said at the same time the government would “carefully consider any proposal” regarding Northern Beaches Hospital.

On Wednesday night, Mr Park said the government taking over the hospital would be difficult and challenging, given the complexity of the contract Healthscope signed with the previous Coalition government.

But he told the forum this “model of healthcare no longer works”.

“When private firms are involved, therfe is obviously going to be a focus on the bottom line,” he said.

“(We will) work with your community, the Treasurer and I . . . and you as individuals, to try and do whatever we can to make sure that this facility comes back into public hands.

“It is not easy, but that does not mean we can’t get there.

“We will try to right a wrong.”

Mr Mookhey said the guiding principle of the government as it examines whether the public component of the hospital should be taken over by NSW Health was to ensure every citizen had equal access to quality emergency care.

Last month, a damaging report released by the NSW Auditor-General found the hospital was failing to deliver the safe, integrated public care promised under its private partnership.

The report concluded that the hospital was not meeting key clinical outcomes.