Time to end public-private partnerships in the health sector

April 16, 2025

Good to hear Hamish McDonald on ABC Radio Sydney on 16 April running through with Stephen Duckett the many and various steps that have to be taken for the public sector to acquire Northern Beaches Hospital from Healthscope.

Healthscope have offered to dissolve their ownership, but there is a Canadian investor who will no doubt want their money back. But how about we stop doing this with public-private partnerships?

How about, instead of getting the ambulance to the bottom of the cliff, we start at the top and don’t go into these PPP arrangements in the first place?

They have a poor history of corporate and clinical governance in healthcare in Australia. How about we express some confidence in the regulation of the public sector and plan, build and operate in the public sector?

If that means higher taxes, so be it.