New South Wales will implement legislation to prevent future privatisation of public acute hospitals. The state government has announced "Joe's Law," named in memory of Joe Massa, a two-year-old who tragically died at Northern Beaches Hospital.

The child's death occurred after a three-hour wait in the emergency department run by Healthscope, a private healthcare provider operating under a public-private partnership (PPP) arrangement. This facility, established in 2018 during the previous Coalition government's term, was created to replace two smaller public hospitals.

The incident has sparked a crucial debate about healthcare privatisation and has prompted this important decision to protect public hospital services in NSW.

Michael Whaites, NSWNMA Assistant General Secretary, said:

“We welcome the Minns government’s decision to prevent any future public private partnerships (PPP) for acute services in NSW. There is overwhelming evidence that PPPs are not the right model for delivering public healthcare services to the community. We warned the previous government that this would be detrimental to the community and people of the Northern Beaches.

Whilst we welcome this important first step to protect acute care services from the risk of privatisation, we will continue to campaign that no public healthcare services should be privatised. 

It’s not just the acute care privatisations that have failed. We’ve seen palliative care, dialysis and aged care failing where these services have been taken out of government run ownership.”

The NSWNMA submitted a comprehensive report to the Special Commission of Inquiry into Healthcare Funding, presenting detailed evidence on the impact of privatisation and outsourcing on service delivery and health outcomes in NSW. The findings in pages 24-38 are particularly revealing. Read the full report here.

Click here for more details on the law and the government's decision.