Northern Beaches Hospital: Minns confirms NSW government to take control of scandal-riddled Healthscope facility

An embattled hospital will officially return to public hands after months of scandal and financial turmoil.

Northern Beaches Hospital in Sydney came under fire following the death of two-year-old Joe Massa, who died after he and his parents spent three hours in waiting in its emergency department.

Community outrage and advocacy led by his parents Elouise and Danny Massa prompted the NSW government to pass “Joe’s Law”, banning future private-public hospital partnerships.

NSW Premier Chris Minns has confirmed his Labor government has reached an agreement with Healthscope, which is in receivership and operates the hospital’s public services.

“Our state’s acute hospital services that provide lifesaving care to the people of New South Wales should not be privatised and thanks to this decision, no hospital in NSW will be,” he said on Wednesday.

“We’ve reversed one of the worst decisions of any NSW government, where a private hospital model was foisted on the people of the Northern Beaches.”

Under the agreement, the hospital will return to public ownership, all clinical and support staff currently working at the hospital will receive job offers from NSW Health and staff entitlements will be transferred.

The transition is expected to occur in mid-2026.

An April report into the hospital found that the public-private partnership created tension between healthcare and profits, and accused management of failing to take sufficient action to stop clinical safety risks.

Healthscope operates 37 hospitals across the country and was initially contracted to run the Northern Beaches institution until 2038.

It had gone to the government in 2023 to try terminate the $2 billion contract, citing insufficient funding, poor health network integration and other reasons.

Although the state government will pay $190 million to Healthscope for the transfer deal, NSW Treasurer Daniel Mookhey stressed there would be no windfall gains for the provider or its investors at the expense of taxpayers.

“This agreement delivers what the Northern Beaches community has been calling for - a publicly run hospital that puts patients before profit,” he said.

Newborn Harper Atkinson died after treatment at the facility in February, with her mother believing an hour-long wait for surgery contributed to the death.

Teenager James Tsindos died at a separate Healthscope-run hospital in Melbourne, leaving his family with questions about his death. An inquest is probing if he received appropriate medical care.