Cairns doctor Sandy Donald ‘largely concerned’ about private hospital buyout

A Cairns specialist doctor has voiced concerns over the ‘potential Americanisation’ of the region’s private health system in a $20bn consortium takeover by US investment company.

A CAIRNS specialist doctor has voiced his concerns over the announcement of a US global investment company’s bid to take over the ownership of Cairns Private Hospital.

Kohlberg Kravis Roberts is the American company leading a consortium, including HESTA superannuation fund, in a $20bn bid to take over Australia’s largest private hospital group, Ramsay Health Care.

Senior vice president of the Together Queensland union and anaesthetist at the Cairns Hospital said the consortium’s bid on Cairns Private Hospital is “largely concerning.”

Dr Sandy Donald leada an AWU rally outside the Cairns Base Hospital. Picture: Emily Barker

“I would be concerned about a large American company owning private hospitals in Australia because, while it is hard to know the outcome of how this will play out, I could certainly say that any further move of our health system towards the American model is going to be bad,” he said.

“It’s not an automatic outcome but if you’ve got a large American investment company involved, it’s hard to avoid the conclusion that they would focus on increasing profits and increasing the percentage of available money going back to investors.

“This outcome would almost certainly mean a drop in standards of care and paying less to the people that work there.”

Cairns Private Hospital.

When asked about how this buyout would impact the working relationship between Cairns’ public and private hospital sectors, Dr Donald assumed it would continue “business as usual”, if more costly.

“I have no knowledge of what the contract arrangements are, but my assumption is if beds were available in privates and they could make money by giving access to public patients, they would,” he said.

“There was the possibility with a new owner that they might demand more money for public patients to use the beds, moving us closer towards that Americanised system.”

Outgoing Federal Health Minister Greg Hunt. PICTURE: ANNA ROGERS

Dr Donald expressed his worries of a US global investment company’s involvement in Australian healthcare becoming “another small step towards managed care”, a move Australia’s Federal Health Minister Greg Hunt slammed in June 2021.

“Managed care in America is essentially where someone gets to decide on the patient’s medical decisions and recoveries without the medical credentials and removes independent choice, it gives decisions to the companies,” he said.

Originally published as Cairns doctor Sandy Donald ‘largely concerned’ about private hospital buyout