Northern Beaches Hospital: Calls for state government to keep private services at troubled facility
Senior doctors warn cutting private services at troubled Northern Beaches Hospital will blow out surgery waiting lists and force residents to travel further for vital medical care.
Fears that some critical medical care will disappear and elective surgery waiting times will blow out have sparked a push to keep private health services at the troubled Northern Beaches Hospital.
Senior doctors at the hospital and community leaders are urging the state government to allow a private hospital component to remain at the Frenchs Forest site.
Concerns that 100 private health beds could be cut — forcing people to travel away from the northern beaches for health care — have also been raised.
Doctors predict that when NBH is returned to public hands, private services such as specialist cancer treatment, robotic joint and prostate surgery as well as brain surgery, will be adversely affected.
The state government was in a long-term public-private partnership contract with private company Healthscope to provide public health and emergency department services on the northern beaches.
Healthscope also provides private hospital services at the site.
But in August the government announced the public component of the hospital would be coming under the control of NSW Health in the near future.
The move came after NBH was at the centre of a series of damaging medical tragedies, including the death of 22-month-old Joe Massa, who attended the ED last year.
Earlier this year, Healthscope announced it wanted 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.
Healthscope, which went into receivership in May, also said it wanted to sell all its Australian hospitals, including NBH.
Talks on the transition are still ongoing with Healthscope and its receivers.
Obstetrician and gynaecologist, David Jollow, chair of NBH’s Medical Advisory Committee and head of its maternity department, said senior clinicians were “extremely concerned” that the loss of private health care would “force many residents to travel further for their care”.
Dr Jollow said it may also lead to a decrease in services to public patients due to the potential loss of medical, nursing and allied health staff “who aren’t able to work at NBH anymore”.
“Over 20,000 private operations are performed at NBH every year, and there is no real
plan to continue this work locally,” he said.
NBH orthopaedic surgeon, Matthew Sherlock, said removing private health services would mean that both public and private patients would lose “vital lifesaving heart stenting service and Mako robotic joint replacement surgery”.
“Private patients who prefer to have their surgery on the northern beaches may choose to go on a public waiting list, leading to massive wait list blow outs,” Dr Sherlock warned.
Community advocate and former long-term Northern Beaches Councillor, Pat Daley, who is receiving ongoing treatment at the hospital, urged a rethink on the hospital’s proposed future.
“We are all aware that Northern Beaches Hospital has faced some significant issues in recent times; however, what is being proposed is a classic case of throwing the baby out with the bathwater,” he said.
“The proposed model is alarming, and if it proceeds, I believe it will have a profoundly negative impact on the health and wellbeing of the northern beaches’ community, particularly those with private health insurance.”
The independent federal MP for Mackellar, Sophie Scamps — a GP — also called on the state government to retain the “full complement of private health services and beds currently available at the hospital”.
“If private services are lost or downgraded, we will risk losing critical specialists and
force residents to travel out of area for essential care. That is simply unacceptable,” she said.
The Northern Sydney Local Health District said it has consulted senior clinical staff in NBH on the possible impacts and future delivery models for private services.
“The district will continue to work closely with Northern Beaches Hospital on all
aspects of transition planning to ensure the hospital continues to meet the health
needs of the community, including maintaining its positive elective surgical
performance,” according to a statement..
“The Northern Beaches Hospital Taskforce is exploring all options as part of the
planning for the transition of Northern Beaches Hospital to NSW Health, including
arrangements for the ongoing provision of private services.
“A final determination on the future scope of privately delivered services has not been
made.”
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Originally published as Northern Beaches Hospital: Calls for state government to keep private services at troubled facility
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