Speaking at a packed public forum in Shellharbour on Monday night, Public Service International sub-regional secretary Michael Whaites said privatised public hospitals had a history of failure in Australia. 

Port Macquarie Base Hospital in NSW, Victoria’s La Trobe Hospital and South Australia’s Modbury Hospital were among the litany of failures – all having to be eventually bought back by state governments.

‘’Just because it’s private doesn’t mean it’s more efficient. ...Seven hospitals around the country have gone into a public-private partnership (PPP) and have failed,’’ Mr Whaites said.

‘’When Port Macquarie was run by a private operator, the elective surgery wait time was double the state average and costs were 20 per cent higher.

‘’At La Trobe the company experienced losses of $6.2 million and the government had to take it back … at Modbury there was a $2 million loss for that company.’’

Mr Whaites said inquiries were also being held into another four hospitals operating under a PPP – including Noosa in Queensland and Joondalup in WA. Partial privatisations of services were also problematic.

‘’Royal North Shore privatised cleaning services and care was delayed so much nurses were having to clean beds,’’ he said.

‘’At Sir Charles Hospital (WA) privatising cleaners led to 172 people acquiring infections … which cost $2.7 million for the government to fix up.

‘’ … When you ask people if they want to privatise Shellharbour Hospital they all say no – and they’re right to say that.’’

Hundreds of health workers and their union representatives, concerned community members and politicians attended Monday night’s forum at The Shellharbour Club.

Labor’s health spokesman Walt Secord urged the NSW Government to ‘’backflip’’ on its decision last September to redevelop the hospital under a PPP.

Doctors, nurses and other staff also outlined concerns that nurse-to-patient ratios and services would suffer under the proposal. 

However parliamentary secretary for the Illawarra Gareth Ward said he had taken staff delegations to meet with Health Minister Brad Hazzard in recent months – and the outcome had not yet been decided.

‘’I’ve made it clear there’s no green light as yet, we will assess the expressions of interest received and if they are not in the best interests of public patients we won’t proceed – if they are, we will consider it,’’ Mr Ward said.