Mental health hospital closure in St Helens Private Hospital, Hobart to leave gaps in support

The closure of a Hobart hospital has the state government scrambling to cover the gaps and leaves a massive question mark around how patients will receive support. DETAILS >

Adjunct Associate Professor Steven Bernardi speaks to the media about the St Helens Private Hospital closure in Hobart on Tuesday, May 2, 2023.

Private health provider Healthscope has announced the closure of its Hobart mental health hospital, leaving a question mark over the provision of services for hundreds of clients.

Medical services have been provided out of the building that is currently the St Helens Private Hospital on Macquarie Street for more than 100 years.

Healthscope has owned the hospital for 22 years, but the condition of the heritage-listed building and a drop in demand means the 39-bed facility is no longer viable, said Healthscope spokesman Steven Bernardi.

Around 100 staff will be affected by the move, plus around hundreds of those each year who accessing inpatient and day services presently offered at the site.

The building that houses the hospital is to be sold.

The hospital is home to the only mother-baby inpatient mental health service in the Tasmania.

Associate Professor Bernardi said staff had been informed on Tuesday or the decision to close.

“This is a really sad day in the history of St. Helens. We spoke to our team this morning, I explained to them that our plans to close as of the end of June this year,” he said.

“We explained the rationale: we’ve got a ageing facility. heritage-listed, declining infrastructure and coupled with declining demand means that the multimillion dollar investment just isn’t viable for us.

“We have been meeting with the Tasmanian Government in recent times to discuss our plans for both our people and for our patients.”

Staff will be offered redeployment or redundancies and transitional plans would be put in place for patients to receive continuing care, he said.

Premier and Health Minister Jeremy Rockliff said talks were underway to fill the gap left by the hospital’s imminent closure.

“While this is a commercial decision by Healthscope and we are disappointed, we are stepping in to ensure the community still has access to these important health services,” Mr Rockliff said.

“As the only mother-baby unit in the state, we fully understand how important this service is for Tasmanian families.

“Planning is well underway to establish a public mother baby unit in the Tasmanian Health Service and we have had initial discussions with other providers about their ability to establish this service in the future.

“The THS is also working with other non-government providers to ensure the health system is ready to meet any additional patient demand for in-hospital services.”

Pip Swan is part of a women’s group which has met at the hospital once a week for the last 15 years.

“We’re in shock and disbelief that were having our safety net, our hospital, taken away from us when there’s no other private mental health facility like these nearby,” she said.

“The effect on us is just unbelievable.

“It’s going to have such a detrimental effect on a massive group of people in Hobart and Tasmania.”

Healthscope said the announcement did not affect its continued operation of the Hobart Private Hospital.