“Joe’s Law” will be introduced in the NSW parliament to ban public-private partnerships from hospitals running emergency, surgical and inpatient services.
It follows the September death of two-year-old Joe Massa, of Balgowlah, who collapsed and died after he and his parents waited three hours in the emergency department at Northern Beaches Hospital.
The hospital, which opened in 2018 to replace two smaller public hospitals, runs under a controversial public-private partnership set up under the former coalition state government.
Premier Chris Minns today said his government believed critical public services like hospitals should stay in public hands and be “safeguarded” from privatisation.
The legislation would bar governments from entering into another Northern Beaches Hospital-style arrangement to either build or operate an acute public hospital.
The proposed laws would honour Joe’s memory and legacy by protecting health facilities from any future privatisation agenda, Health Minister Ryan Park said.
“Our major and local community hospitals should be run by the people,” he said.
The two-year-old’s death followed repeated failures by hospital staff to conduct basic observations or respond to his mother’s concerns.
The Massa family previously called for protection of public hospital care in law to prevent further privatisation and outsourcing, claiming the 488-bed hospital used flawed IT systems that differed from those used in other emergency wards.
A parliamentary inquiry into Northern Beaches Hospital was announced earlier in March to investigate serious incidents at the facility and how management responded.
The hospital is one of 38 Australian facilities run by Canadian-controlled Healthscope, which is owned by a multinational private investment fund.
The company’s chief executive previously vowed hospital management would ensure they learned from Joe’s tragic death to ensure it didn’t happen again.
Under the existing operating model for Northern Beaches Hospital, Healthscope has a contract with the NSW government to run its public wing until 2038.
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Northern Beaches Hospital strikes
Healthscope Response
“Northern Beaches Hospital (NBH) and Healthscope again offers our sincere condolences to the Massa family for the loss of their son, Joe.
“NBH is operated by a dedicated team of doctors, nurses and administrators whose absolute priority is always quality patient care. We again apologise that we did not meet that standard in the care of baby Joe Massa, and are determined to learn from this to prevent this happening in any hospital.
“The case is subject to several inquiries and reviews, including a NSW Budget Estimates, a NSW Public Accounts inquiry, an independent review by the Clinical Excellence Council and a Coronial Inquest. NBH is actively participating and supporting each inquiry, and we unreservedly support the improvements proposed to the REACH protocol, that will now be known as Joe’s Rule.
“We note the NSW Government’s announcement today that it will introduce legislation to prevent future public/private partnerships to run public acute hospitals.
“Healthscope have been engaging with the NSW Health Minister’s office, NSW Health and the North Sydney Local Health District and we continue to operate Northern Beaches Hospital (NBH) under the terms of its Project Deed with the NSW Government.
“Our team at Northern Beaches Hospital do outstanding work every day providing high quality care for their community. The most recent Bureau of Health Information’s Healthcare Quarterly report shows NBH performing strongly compared to peer hospitals on a range of key clinical measures.
“The continued focus on NBH is impacting on our passionate and dedicated clinicians, who are being subjected to unwarranted aggression and abuse. This is unacceptable and we ask that they be treated respectfully.”
Healthscope has also pointed to Bureau of Health data showing the hospital continues to perform better than its peers with emergency wait times, among other key metrics, which can be viewed via the Bureau od Health information, and selecting compare with peers, here.
