NSW Health has sent 15 senior ‘eyes and ears’ into the hospital. What does it mean for the negotiations with Healthscope?
Fifteen senior leaders from NSW Health are moving into Northern Beaches Hospital today to help prepare for its eventual transition away from a public-private partnership.
The transition assessment and planning (TAP) team from Northern Sydney Local Health District (NSLHD) work in the areas of IT, patient safety and culture, clinical operations, workforce, finance and corporate services.
NSW health minister Ryan Park said the team would work in a range of different areas in the hospital.
“They won’t be frontline staff. They will be working behind the scenes to understand systems and issues, including the very complex IT system, and how it interfaces with New South Wales Health. The workforce, issues and challenges, and how they will transition going forward,” he said.
“A lot of the back office or corporate services, and what that means in relation to that, as well as the clinical safety of the hospital, and what we are doing in relation to that going forward, what we need to understand, what challenges there may be with issues such as equipment purchasing.
“These will be the eyes and ears into a private hospital. I know that this is a significant move, and I want to acknowledge the staff at Northern Beaches Hospital.
“It marks another milestone in unravelling the PPP (Public-Private Partnership) and bringing this situation back into a different level of control.”
An area of particular concern is the current electronic medical records in the emergency department. They are incompatible with those used by other public hospitals in the NSLHD, making it difficult for clinicians outside the hospital to access full patient histories.
An auditor general report in April found the electronic clinical systems presented “quality and safety risks”.
“Certainly, that IT system publicly has been shown that it is not as strong, from my perspective, as what we have in our public hospital systems. Now other people would agree or disagree. That’s up to them. The auditor general and others and our inquiries have highlighted that as a challenge,” Mr Park said.
“Our preference would obviously be for systems to be under the one patient record. Now we are moving to a single digital patient record in New South Wales going forward, that will be our preference, but we need to get there in there and have a real good look at it.”
NSW Health has been negotiating with private owner Healthscope to take back control of the hospital.
A bill passed the NSW parliament in June, making sure the government can terminate its failed Public Private Partnership (PPP) contract as if a hospital operator default had occurred, if they can’t reach a negotiated outcome with Healthscope and its receivers (Healthscope went into receivership in May).
Despite today’s important step, Mr Park said there was still no timeline on when negotiations would be complete.
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“At the moment, those negotiations are still at a stage where they are moving forward. So I want to acknowledge that they have not stalled. They are moving forward,” he said.
In a statement, McGrathNicol partner & appointed receiver Jason Ireland & Healthscope CEO Tino La Spina agreed.
“McGrathNicol and Healthscope continue to engage constructively with the NSW Government in negotiations for the future ownership and operation of the Northern Beaches Hospital. We welcome this important step in the process,” they said.
In other Healthscope news, the deadline to make a first-round offer for Healthscope private hospitals was extended a week, according to a report in The Australian.
Ramsay Health Care is believed to be considering an acquisition of a collection of hospitals from the embattled hospital group, with other bidders including Pacific Equity Partners and various Catholic Health Care hospitals.
Of particular interest is Knox Hospital in Melbourne, which is rumoured to have four or five bids.
Mr Park didn’t confirm or deny that the protracted Healthscope buyer process had impacted the negotiation process of NBH.
“All of these things are challenging. The reality is, we’re dealing with a really complex contract. We’re dealing with a contract that, under the current deed, was meant to be negotiated out for the last three years to work toward transition,” he said.
“We’re doing everything at fast forward, and I acknowledge that it’s been challenging.
“We’ve got the responsibility of making sure that taxpayers don’t get duped. We’ve got to make sure that we’ve got the responsibility of delivering a strong hospital and a strong health service for the people of the Northern Beaches. And we’ve got a responsibility, from my perspective, to do that as quickly as possible.”