What private hospital turmoil could mean for Gold Coast

OPINION: News of trouble for the parent company of the 300-bed Gold Coast Private Hospital could be a pivotal moment for the city’s stretched healthcare services.

It would be a serious investment, but amid enormous demand on our health service, should the state government consider taking an interest in Gold Coast Private Hospital?

Along with more than 30 other hospitals operated by private hospital operator Healthscope, it is up for sale as part of a receivership.

The reason the government may consider making an offer is as clear as a chickenpox diagnosis on a child pockmarked with rash.

The next door Gold Coast University Hospital (GCUH), the linchpin of our health system, is under enormous strain. So too Robina Hospital.

Gold Coast Health last week revealed that it had recorded 218,763 presentations between April 2024 and March this year. Remarkably, despite all the growth of previous years, that’s up 14 per cent on the year previously.

A new hospital at Coomera is the long-awaited solution, but it’s years away. Although foundations have been poured at the George Alexander Way site, the Crisafulli government last month revealed the project was not looking healthy.

Although only eight months into construction, a review by specialist Sam Sangster found the hospital build was significantly over budget and running 182 days behind schedule. The existing plans, meanwhile, were deemed too small to meet the Gold Coast’s burgeoning demand.

Health Minister Tim Nicholls announced it was back to the drawing board to rework the planned hospital from 404 to roughly 600 beds. He was unable to give a time frame for its completion, but the original hopes it would be done by late 2027 are already toast, and even the most recent estimate of 30 June 2028 looks deeply unlikely.

The Gold Coast Private Hospital, as seen from the rear of the Gold Coast University Hospital. Picture: Glenn Hampson.

Meanwhile, the extremely hardworking staff at the Gold Coast’s existing hospitals are dealing with extraordinary levels of demand.

That they do so brilliantly very much needs to be acknowledged. Despite the workload, staff at GCUH and Robina consistently hit demanding benchmarks. They may be deeply under the pump, but this columnist can personally attest that the standard of care is never short of world leading.

They deserve our eternal praise and gratitude. They also deserve every possible assistance – which is where the sizeable Healthscope facility directly across the road from GCUH may come into play.

On Monday Healthscope’s parent company collapsed into receivership with debts of $1.4 billion.

While its Southport facility continues to operate as normal, and Healthscope’s hospitals are very likely to find new buyers, the doubts about its future are troubling.

Gold Coast Private has 314 beds and 21 operating theatres, catering to thousands of patients each year. There is simply no way the public system could possibly soak up the slack if there is any diminution in the services provided by Gold Coast Private.

On Monday it was reported that 10 buyers were already circling Healthscope hospitals, as McGrathNicol Restructuring worked with management to sell the business - either as a whole or in parts.

Staff at Gold Coast University Hospital are doing extraordinary work amid record demand. Picture: Patrick Hamilton / AFP.

So should the state government, via Queensland Health, examine the feasibility of acquiring an interest in Gold Coast Private, whether that be via a public-private partnership with a non-profit player, or even by purchasing it outright?

Unlike Healthscope’s other Queensland assets – the Brisbane Private Hospital, Peninsula Private Hospital, Pine Rivers Private Hospital and Sunnybank Private Hospital – the Gold Coast version has a highly strategic location.

Not only is it directly across the Gold Coast University Hospital, it is also beside Griffith University in the heart of the Gold Coast Health and Knowledge precinct.

It would be easier for its facilities to be well used by the public system.

It would not be the first time. In the wake of Covid-19, many procedures were carried out at Gold Coast Private on the public purse as the health system sought to clear the backlog that built up during pandemic restrictions.

Stretched by soaring demand, health bosses continue to lean on private operators for help. The state government has a standing $14m contract with KNG Health to provide 27 beds for semi-acute patients at the Mantra Hotel at the Gold Coast Sharks.

When the practice of using hotel rooms for patient care was first revealed in 2023, Ros Bates asked then health minister Shannon Fentiman, “Has the situation become so dire in Queensland Health that hospital beds are now being replaced with hotel beds?”

Bonney MP Sam O’Connor, whose electorate encompasses GCUH, asked at the time “if it was acceptable that Queenslanders ... were receiving care in a hotel instead of in a hospital”.

Gold Coast Private is even closer to GCUH than the Mantra – and built for the purpose of housing patients.

The Mantra Southport Sharks hotel. Picture: Glenn Hampson.

In Tasmania, there have been calls for the state government there to consider purchasing another Healthscope property, Hobart Private Hospital, and roll it into the public system.

The Tasmanian Health Minister, Jacquie Petrusma, said it was “working on contingencies”.

The state government here, too, should not let the moment pass without energetically exploring its options.

To be clear, taking on Gold Coast Private in part or in full would not mean a sudden influx of 300 new beds into the public system. Those beds are already in gainful use.

Neither should the state get involved in providing private healthcare – though as noted before, they sometimes find themselves paying private providers for services.

But in the long term, Queensland Health involvement in any new management at Gold Coast Private could see greater use of its assets. Just look at how hard staff sweat the facilities at next door GCUH.

Buying into Gold Coast Private may be far fetched. It is the jewel in Healthscope’s tarnished crown, and won’t be given up cheaply.

However given how long it will be before Coomera Hospital can accept its first patients, the state should be seriously examining its options.

Follow @keithjwoods

Originally published as What private hospital turmoil could mean for Gold Coast