Coronavirus: private hospitals on standby

Governments are in crisis talks with private hospitals to stay open and retain staff so help cope with the COVID-19 pandemic.

Health Minister Greg Hunt said that over the weekend states had been directly working with private hospitals. Picture: Gary Ramage

State and federal governments are holding urgent talks with private hospitals to ensure staff can continue to work after national cabinet’s decision to suspend elective surgery left many hospitals without business.

Amid threats from private hospitals to close and make staff ­redundant, and calls from the Australian Medical Association to use private hospitals for urgent medical care to free up public hospital capacity for COVID-19 patients, state and federal governments held crisis talks with the sector over the weekend.

“We are working with the private hospitals and over the weekend the states have been working directly with private hospitals,” federal Health Minister Greg Hunt said on Sunday. “The view is that they are a critical part of the system and part of the capacity.

“Just before coming here, I had a call from one of the major private health providers, in terms of hospitals, and they are close to an agreement with at least two of the states.

“The states will be reporting back to the national cabinet today, as was agreed on Friday, so I want to thank them, they have made ­extraordinary progress with what is an indispensable and critical part of the system.”

Victorian Health Minister Jenny Mikakos says 200 nurses have been employed into the state’s public health system. Picture: AAP

Victorian Health Minister Jenny Mikakos said the state government was talking to private hospitals to ensure their staff could continue to work.

“There’ve been very constructive discussions with the private hospital sector over … the weekend, and those discussions are continuing today,” Ms Mikakos said on Sunday, foreshadowing further announcements.

“We have actually stepped in and employed 200 nurses from the Epworth and Cabrini hospitals.

“They are now part of Victoria’s public health team, engaging in contact-tracing work.

“So we know that we can utilise these highly skilled healthcare workers at this time, we are taking up those opportunities.

“We know they are impacted … by the national cabinet decision to wind back elective surgery. We had to implement that.”

Queensland Chief Health Officer Jeannette Young said she was working with the private hospitals to see how the public system could capitalise on their cancellation of elective surgery.

“We know that some private hospitals have cancelled some of their elective surgery and as a ­result have stood down some staff,” Dr Young said. “I’m currently working with the private hospitals to see how we can use that capacity. Within Queensland Health, we’re doing all the elective surgery we possibly can, and using all our capacity to do it. We’ve just moved our focus away from the less urgent Category 3 work to ­really concentrate on clearing all of the Category 1, and the more ­serious Category 2 work.”

In Western Australia, two private hospitals are being used to treat foreign cruise ship passengers with coronavirus under a deal struck between the McGowan government and the federal ­government.

Additional reporting: PAIGE TAYLOR, ROSIE LEWIS