A “Joe’s Rule” has been promised to protect families from needless heartache after a toddler died following critical failings at Northern Beaches Hospital.
NSW Premier Chris Minns has also not ruled out legislating to protect public hospital care from being outsourced, after meeting with the the parents of Joe Massa this week.
The two-year-old collapsed and died in September after he and his parents waited three hours in the emergency department at Northern Beaches Hospital.
His cardiac arrest – caused by significant fluid loss – followed repeated failures by hospital staff to conduct basic observations or respond to the concerns of his mother, Elouise.
But she said the premier and health minister appeared to genuinely take on the family’s proposed changes in a recent meeting.
“It’s all a step in the right direction in saving lives and protecting public safety,” Ms Massa told AAP on Thursday.
One proposal aims to prevent further privatisation by protecting public hospital care in legislation.
The 488-bed Northern Beaches Hospital, opened in 2018 to replace Manly and Mona Vale hospitals, is one of 38 Australian hospitals run by Canadian-controlled Healthscope.
The controversial public-private partnership was set up under the former coalition state government.
Despite the emergency department being a public ward, Healthscope uses different IT systems that the Massa family says are flawed.
Labor could protect public hospital care in law like it did with water utilities including Sydney Water in 2023, Ms Massa said.
“This government says they won’t do it (privatise hospital care) and that’s good,” she said.
“But what’s going to happen with the next government and the next government.”
The family also said they received “100 per cent” agreement to overhaul a family-led escalation pathway called REACH, which would be renamed “Joe’s Law”.
Meant to ensure staff are apprised and act upon worrying changes in a patient’s condition, in practice the policy was little known and not easily understood.
“I didn’t know about it as the premier and I didn’t know about it as a dad who has taken my kids to emergency departments, and I think that’s a problem,” Mr Minns said.
Independent reviews into Joe’s death, the emergency department and wider hospital were also taken on.
Health Minister Ryan Park said he made clear to the family he would try to ensure a similar death could not happen again.
“This family has been through hell,” he said.
“I don’t know how they are doing what they are doing at the moment. I don’t think I would be able to do it if it’s my child.”
Federal Opposition Leader Peter Dutton previously described the circumstances of Joe’s death as “unimaginable”, adding the family deserved answers about what happened to their son.
Update 6 March 2025:
The NSW Coroner has directed police to investigate the death of two-year-old Joseph Massa at Sydney’s Northern Beaches Hospital in September last year.
On Thursday 27 February 2025, officers attached to Northern Beaches Police Area Command launched an investigation, under Strike Force Carlton, into the death of the child.
A brief of evidence will be prepared for the Coroner.
Joe’s parents have since set up a website www.actionforjoe.com.au
