The NSW government today confirmed it will support the Northern Beaches Hospital (Voluntary Contract Termination) Bill 2025 introduced by Wakehurst MP Michael Regan but with at least one key change – chiefly, that some compensation still be paid to the private operator, now in receivership. Healthscope was contracted to operate Northern Beaches Hospital from 2018 under a public private partnership (a PPP) that ran for 20 years. Since that time it has faced two parliamentary inquiries and an audit that determined it was not a health model that should be repeated. The community has raised concerns about staffing shortages, long wait times, and the complex dual model that sees public patients treated alongside private patients under the same roof. The issue came to the fore when Balgowlah...