Healthscope private maternity services to close in Darwin and Hobart
Embattled private hospital provider Healthscope has announced the closure of its maternity services in Darwin and Hobart.
Expectant mothers in the Northern Territory will soon not be able to give birth using the private health system, after the territory’s only private hospital announced plans to end its maternity services.
Healthscope will close its maternity unit in Darwin on April 17, due to a decline in private births, marking an end to private birthing care in the territory.
Healthscope will also close its maternity service in Hobart on August 20, which it has blamed on staff shortages.
Doctors have expressed concerns about the closures, warning it is a sign of things to come, given the deep financial pressures facing the private hospital sector.
The closures are also a blow to expectant parents, but Healthscope has moved to assure them they will continue to be cared for.
The provider said it would work with health authorities in both locations to transition patients to alternative services.
In Hobart, that means to either Calvary private hospital or the public system. But in the NT patients will only have access to the public system.
NT Health Minister Steve Edgington said the closure was “deeply disappointing” and would be distressing to families across the territory, but he also moved to assure them.
“All expectant families affected by the closure will be contacted to reassure them that safe and positive care will be provided throughout the transition to Royal Darwin Hospital,” Mr Edgington said.
“Unfortunately, this closure is a trend occurring at private hospitals across Australia. In the past eight years, about 12 private hospitals have stopped providing maternity services, including in Cairns, Bunbury and Hobart.”
Mr Edgington said the government was aware Healthscope had been reviewing its scope of services at Darwin Private, and so NT Health had already begun developing contingency plans.
“Given (the) announcement, the CLP government will act swiftly to ensure there are alternative private maternity models and experiences in Darwin.
“We will also work with Darwin Private Hospital staff affected by the closure to provide fast-track employment options.”
Healthscope’s NT manager, Tim Daniels, said the Darwin closure was the result of significantly declining private birthrates and staff shortages.
“Closing a service is always a last resort option,” he said. “Over the past 12 months, we have carefully looked at a range of options for the maternity service at Darwin Private Hospital, including different service models and a reduction in capacity. Unfortunately, operational issues have become overwhelming.”
In Tasmania, admissions to Healthscope’s facility in Hobart will end on August 13, with a full closure of the unit taking effect from August 20.
Chris Hewison, manager for Healthscope Victoria and Tasmania, said the closure there was a result of staff shortages.
“We have looked at a range of options to maintain the maternity service and worked very hard to recruit the full-time midwives we need,” he said.
“Unfortunately, these efforts haven’t secured the workforce we need and has made maintaining a stable and reliable maternity service increasingly difficult.”
Tasmanian Health Minister Jacquie Petrusma said the move was disappointing.
“Our No.1 priority is ensuring mothers and babies have the appropriate support and services they need during their birthing journeys,” she said.
She has also called on the federal government to provide more support to private hospitals more broadly.
“Our government stands ready to work with the federal government, key stakeholders and private providers such as Calvary Healthcare to support the additional requirements in capacity for birthing services in southern Tasmania.
“With support from the federal government, we believe, alongside Calvary, that an increase of maternity service capacity at the Royal Hobart Hospital and Calvary Lenah Valley can be managed.”
Federal Health Minister Mark Butler acknowledged the closures would be particularly difficult for people in Hobart and Darwin, but he stopped short of intervening further.
“Our government will continue to work closely and collaboratively with the Tasmanian and NT governments to ensure that maternity care services are provided for all women when and where they need it,” he said.
“As the Financial Health Check showed, the private hospital sector is facing several challenges, largely because of private pressures in the system that can only be managed by hospitals and insurers sitting down together and sorting it out.”
Opposition health spokeswoman Anne Ruston said that was not good enough. “Critical maternity services are disappearing at an alarming rate as Labor refuses to take action,” she said.
“The minister’s lack of action is the equivalent of diagnosing a patient with an illness and then doing nothing to treat them.”
The National Association of Specialist Obstetricians and Gynaecologists said it held “deep concern” over the closures and what it meant for patients and the future of private healthcare.
“The closure of these maternity services underscores the fragile state of private obstetric care,” NASOG president Gino Pecoraro said.
He described it as a “devastating blow to women’s healthcare” that highlighted the growing instability in Australia’s private healthcare sector. He also warned it would result in more expectant mothers shifting to an already overburdened public hospital system.
Private hospitals have been increasingly sounding the alarm that they are under immense pressure as rising operational costs threaten their viability. It’s a situation that has resulted in several messy contractual disputes between private hospital providers and insurers, most notably one between Healthscope and Bupa that was only settled in January.
Mr Butler acknowledged private hospitals are facing several challenges but said those could only be managed by hospitals and insurers sorting them out together.
“It is incumbent on insurers and private hospitals to come together to find solutions to these issues in the interests of patients, not profit,” he said.
Private Healthcare Australia, a lobby group representing insurers, said it was disappointed by the closures. “We understand this will cause a lot of concern for people planning a birth in the Northern Territory and Tasmania”, PHA chief executive, Rachel David said.
But she also suggested high out-of-pocket costs for private maternity services could be partly to blame.
“People commonly report paying more than $6500 in out-of-pocket fees for an obstetrician to manage their pregnancy and birth. This is a major cause of people turning away from private hospital maternity care during a cost-of-living crisis.”
She said insurers would continue working with the federal government to find ways to make maternity care more sustainable.
Healthscope, as a company, is facing significant financial pressures, with reports of takeover attempts filtering through the market in recent weeks. That included a suggestion Bupa may even be interested in operating some of its facilities.
That’s a scenario that has medical professionals spooked, warning such a shift would allow for a “creeping influence” of insurers over clinical decision-making.
“We call on the federal government to intervene and ensure that private health insurers do not control the very hospitals they are meant to fund,” Professor Pecoraro said.
“When a health insurer owns hospitals, there is a real risk that business priorities will override patient care, leading to restricted access, cost-driven decision-making and erosion of the high-quality, patient-centred care that Australians deserve.
“The risk of managed care infiltrating Australia’s private system is no longer theoretical – it is happening before our eyes. If health insurers dictate care models, the doctor-patient relationship will suffer, and the choices available to women during pregnancy and childbirth will diminish.”
Private Healthcare Australia rubbished that suggestion, saying there was no risk of a “US-style managed care” being adopted here.
“It is illegal,” Ms David said. “Any suggestion that health funds want a system where they control clinical decision making is fanciful.”
Healthscope is Australia’s second-largest private hospital operator, with 38 facilities across the country. In January, it announced it had signed a new agreement with Bupa after the hospital provider tore up a previous agreement due to rising operating costs.
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