Overview

• Northern Beaches Hospital has committed to installing three over-bed cameras within weeks and integrating them with NSW Health IT systems to enable remote assessment by NETS specialists.
• A CEC probe published in early August found the hospital lacked life-saving critical care cameras standard in other public facilities and linked the omission to its Healthscope public-private partnership.
• The hospital is rolling out 13 CEC recommendations, including ED triage reviews and adjusted nurse staffing ratios, but progress on clinical governance reforms has been uneven.
• In June, NSW banned all future hospital PPPs and is exploring options to return existing PPP-operated facilities to public control as part of wider patient-safety legislation.
• Earlier inquiries also highlighted a poorly integrated dual electronic medical record system and a culture in which junior staff hesitated to escalate emergencies, increasing risks for critically ill children.