An inquiry heard that mould problems and toxic workplace cultures were common to other private public partnerships across the state. Calvary Mater Newcastle is just the most recent.
Public private partnership models in the NSW health system came under further scrutiny today during the NSW legislative council inquiry into the management, maintenance and operational issues at Calvary Mater Hospital, Newcastle.
The inquiry heard that Novacare, the private consortium responsible for Calvary Mater’s infrastructure, maintenance and cleaning, had offered to transfer back to state management for the sum of $2.
Novacare director Victoria Rigg told the inquiry that due to “significant disputes” within the Novacare consortium – Abigroup, Honeywell and Medirest – Novacare made an offer to return to NSW Health on 13 March this year and followed up with a formal offer on 13 April.
The PPP is made up of Novacare, Calvary Health Care which runs the hospital and clinical care, and NSW Health through the Hunter New England LHD, which funds the public services.
“It’s clearly a complex contractual structure, and it’s very rigid, and … the rigidity means that it’s clearly no longer appropriate for the changing needs of the clinical needs of the hospital,” Ms Rigg told the inquiry.
She said the state’s response to the offer was a preliminary “no”, subject to requiring more information.
“In our view, the most important thing is that this project transitions back into state hands in a planned and coordinated way,” said Ms Rigg.
Mould levels at Calvary Mater hit 54 times the safe levels at the end of last year, the inquiry heard.
In April 2025, air sampling at the hospital – particularly ward 5D, the haematology day ward – showed that mould levels at the hospital ranged from five to 13 times higher than safe levels.
But by December last year, that had escalated to 54 times the safe level, Nationals MLC Sarah Mitchell told the inquiry.
The terms of reference of the inquiry include requiring the committee to compare the Calvary Mater Newcastle PPP with other PPPs across the state, including in relation to maintenance outcomes, quality of care, patient and staff safety, responsiveness, transparency and value for money.
That brought the Health Services Union to the table to discuss workforce culture at the Bathurst, Orange and Bloomfield hospitals.
Also in today’s edition:
- It’s been 509 days. Where is the National Nursing Workforce Strategy?
- How can Cohealth be transparent about secret requirements?
- AI triage cuts ED visits as Healthdirect warns of chatbot safety gaps
- Specialist doctors are charging too much. Four options to rein in excessive fees
- Push to give Indigenous health research funding control to community organisations
- Support at Home physio pricing unrealistic, and where’s the evidence?
The inquiry heard that Bathurst, Orange and Bloomfield hospitals had cultures of fear, bullying, harassment, favouritism, nepotism and micromanagement under the management of Downer Group, the private company contracted to manage operational services at the three hospitals.
A survey by the HSU found that 67% of its members at those hospitals had not reported a workplace issue due to a fear of management retaliation.
“Two-thirds of workers are too fearful to say if something is wrong at work. That puts them at risk … with failed equipment, with bad processes, with understaffing that we know is an issue there at these three hospitals,” said HSU assistant secretary NSW/ACT/QLD Lauren Hutchins.
Ms Hutchins said one staff member had resigned after a patient had repeatedly threatened her with rape, but her supervisor continued to place her in that ward, leading to her resignation.
There were also serious concerns about a breach of conflict of interest in the management of a security contract, Ms Hutchins said.
“Our members were told that the security contracts or the security positions weren’t able to be filled by … NSW Health employees, but rather, that Downer would subcontract this work to a private company in the area.
“It just so happens that the … private security contract company was owned by the brother of the supervisor that was running the contract at Orange hospital.
“What we see here is work that is being siphoned off for profit.
“And what does the local health district do? It asks Downer to investigate it. So Downer investigates itself.
“Clearly there is a real problem here in governance, there is no oversight in terms of how these contracts are being awarded.”
Orange HSU NSW/ACT/QLD delegate and head of security Karl Banham told the inquiry that management had let facilities deteriorate.
“Mould has been found on roof, panels and walls, resulting in the closure and air around the renal dialysis area.”
Mr Banham said because of staff shortages, security staff were routinely doing 12-hour shifts at local mines and then doing 12-hour security shifts at the hospital and falling asleep at work.
“Their guards have done a 12-hour shift out at Cadia mines, come to the hospital absolutely filthy and dirty with all the mines gear and hi-vis, and falling asleep in the office because they’ve done a 12-hour shift already,” Mr Banham said.
One long-term staff member literally counted the days that the hospital had been under the management of Downer Group.
“Downer has been managing us now for 18 years, five months, and as of today, 12 days,” Bathurst HSU NSW/ACT/QLD delegate, Kim Hadson, told the inquiry.
There had not been an audit in those 18 years, Ms Hadson said.
“The local health district and our management at Bathurst Health Service have never, ever come down to see if things are running properly and we are okay.
“Our workers are pumped to the point of no return to do the discharges, because that’s where the money is. They micro-manage. There’s favouritism, there’s nepotism.
“I cannot understand after 18 years, why our union, HSU, has never seen a copy of the contract that is with NSW Health.
“We are NSW Health people, but we’re treated like outcasts, and we have been from day one because they don’t think we’re as important as we once were.
“We’re out there on a limb. We’ve been on a limb for 18 years. No one has listened to anything that we’ve brought up.
“I want them [Downer] to stand up and take responsibility, because they are getting paid to manage us at that hospital. It is taxpayers’ money, and it’s a hell of a lot of money that’s being wasted.”
Staff have low morale, sick leave is “atrocious” and there is a culture of favouritism, she said.
“We’ve got atrocious sick leave. We haven’t got enough staff.
Related
“We are not even allowed to go to our own HR. We have to go to Downer’s HR before we can go to our own. We’re NSW Health employees. Why do we have to do that?”
Ms Hadson said staff were expected to clean rooms for changeovers within 20 minutes rather than one hour.
Bloomfield HSU NSW/ACT/QLD delegate and mail and linen officer Donna Stedman told the inquiry that she had “experienced and witnessed intimidation, bullying, micromanaging and shortcuts by Downer staff on a regular basis”.
Ms Stedman said she had been “embarrassed and humiliated” by two verbal attacks during which she was belittled and yelled at, while her Downer supervisor watched silently.
“Downer handled both these complaints. Even though my attacker was a Health employee, I received zero information about my complaint against my attacker until after that person had announced their retirement.
“Three months later, I was called into a meeting with my downer manager and a HR representative and was told there was nothing they could do.
“The process regarding my formal complaint against my supervisor has been nothing short or disappointing and pathetic.
“There were breaches of confidentiality between my supervisor and manager, straight out lies to protect downer from HR, nothing was resolved.
“The facilitated meeting that was conducted by an untrained HR member was ridiculous, and a deliberate attempt to make me feel isolated and unsupported was successful. Unbelievably, my supervisor did the follow up for that meeting herself.
“My attempts to resolve the discrepancies in the facts and what was written in her follow-up email were ignored by her and completely dismissed by HR. I hit dead ends and got nowhere. I was continually dismissed and treated like an inconvenience.”
Four months later, Ms Stedman received a letter of completion regarding the complaint about her supervisor.
“I feel nothing has been accomplished in regard to how I’ve been treated by Downer this past year. The culture of arse covering within Downer is scary.”
Bathurst HSU NSW/ACT/QLD delegate Rob Danelon told the inquiry that he had suffered injuries from moving 18-year-old hospital beds that were “more like dodgy shopping trolleys” than modern, specialised beds.
Daniel Robinson, manager, contracts and procurement at Western NSW Local Health District, said he raised concerns about the potential conflict of interest regarding the security contract at Orange Hospital and said it was investigated by an internal audit team at Downer.
Emily Suvaal asked Mr Robinson how he could ensure the investigation was independent given “it was Downer investigating Downer”.
“The way that this was investigated by senior management at Downer in that they handed it to their independent audit and ethics team … is almost identical to the way that our LHD has and would deal with a similar investigation around a conflict of interest,” Mr Robinson said.
But Ms Suvaal said “the process can never be identical”.
“We have a public entity, which is an LHD within NSW Health, compared to a private, multinational company. Those two things are never going to be the same.”