Northern Beaches Hospital to transition to public ownership

The operator of Northern Beaches Hospital - Healthscope - will be paid $190 million of taxpayer money to facilitate the transfer of the medical centre to state ownership.

Premier Chris Minns said on Tuesday the embattled hospital would move to direct control by the state by mid-2026.

Healthscope had been contracted to operate the hospital until 2038.

The hospital was opened in 2018 under a public-private partnership, an arrangement under which the government outsources infrastructure and service provision to a private operator.

Minns painted the partnership as “one of the worst decisions of any NSW Government”.

Local state MP Michael Regan (Wakehurst) pushed for an independent audit of the hospital in 2023. 

The results, released earlier this year, concluded the hospital was “not effectively delivering the best quality integrated health services” and that “the public-private partnership structure creates tension between commercial imperatives and clinical outcomes”.