Healthscope has moved to quell fears the Northern Territory could lose its only private hospital, as financial troubles cast uncertainty over the medical centre’s future.
Healthscope is Australia’s second-largest private hospital operator, running 37 hospitals across the country, including Darwin Private Hospital (DPH).
The financially troubled operator collapsed into receivership on Monday, just one week before its maternity services at DPH were due to end on June 6.
The company is now looking for new owners, having appointed corporate restructuring firm McGrathNicol as its receiver.
The instability is particularly unnerving for patients in the NT, where public hospitals are often stretched to capacity and the looming closure of DPH’s birthing ward is prompting women to travel interstate.
About 280 staff work at Darwin Private Hospital. (ABC News: Michael Franchi)
Healthscope senior director of corporate affairs, Jim Cooper, said DPH would continue to operate all services as normal except maternity care.
“It is completely, 100 per cent business at usual at Darwin Private,” he told ABC Radio Darwin.
“Our staff are there ready to care for you. Bookings are being taken as normal.”
Mr Cooper said Healthscope anticipated the process of finding new owners would take about 8 to 12 weeks.
He said the company had already received 10 indicative offers for either the whole network or for individual hospitals.
“Finding an owner won’t be the problem,” he said.
“It’ll just be a matter of what is the best ownership structure going forward.”
He said Healthscope had enough funds to keep all hospitals open during the sale process, with the Commonwealth Bank offering an additional $100 million in loan funding as extra support.
“We can go on as long as we need to until we get clarity, so there will be no issue with money drying up or any pressure on hospitals staying open,” he said.
Health sector needs a timeline, says AMA NT president
The Australian Medical Association’s (AMA) new NT president, John Zorbas, said the sector needed a concrete timeline for the transition.
John Zorbas says NT public hospitals would struggle to manage an influx of private patients. (ABC News: Mike Donnelly)
“Our main priority here is to ensure … the safe care of patients in Darwin Private Hospital and the knock-on effects that Royal Darwin Hospital would suffer were Darwin Private to close,” he told ABC Radio Darwin.
Dr Zorbas said the NT’s public health system was “bursting at the seams”.
“Without a functional private system, the public system can’t cope with that extra demand,”
he said.
NT Health Minister Steve Edgington said the collapse of Healthscope was “extremely disappointing” following the company’s closure of its Darwin maternity services.
He said he hoped a buyer would soon take over operation of the private hospital.
Steve Edgington says he shares patients’ frustrations about Healthscope’s collapse. (ABC News: Pete Garnish)
“This is extremely important and our focus is really all about ensuring that Territorians have choice when it comes to the public and private system,” he said.
Federal Health Minister Mark Butler said he recognised the situation was “highly distressing to patients, staff and local communities”.
However, he said the government would not offer a taxpayer bailout.
The federal government says it will not bail out Healthscope. (ABC News: Michael Franchi)
Maternity services likely to remain closed
When DPH closes its birthing ward on June 6, the NT will be the only jurisdiction in Australia without private maternity services.
Despite outrage from expectant mothers, Mr Cooper said he doubted the hospital’s future operator would reinstate those services.
“The decision to close the maternity service was not so much due to ownership concerns or financial challenges at the parent company level,” he said.
“It was really about the fact we’ve seen birth numbers decline in the last decade, from say 700 [per year] to less than 300 now.
“It’s just not feasible for us to continue to run a maternity service on those very low birth numbers.”
