Overview

• The NSW Auditor-General's April 2025 report found Northern Beaches Hospital is failing to deliver safe, effective healthcare and faces potential collapse under its public-private partnership model.
• The audit criticized Healthscope for prioritizing commercial goals over clinical outcomes, citing unresolved safety risks, elevated birth trauma rates, and inadequate integration with the local health network.
• Two preventable child deaths—Joe Massa in 2024 after a delayed ED response and Harper Atkinson in February 2025 due to on-call surgery delays—have intensified scrutiny of the hospital's operations.
• Healthscope has expressed willingness to return the hospital to public control before the 2038 contract expiration, with a government task force now evaluating this possibility.
• Legislative reforms, including a ban on future public-private partnerships for acute care hospitals, and ongoing parliamentary inquiries aim to address systemic issues raised in the report.