‘Outrageous’: Women’s health services to be cut, incoming Catholic owner of NSW hospitals confirms

Services including IVF, voluntary assisted dying, elective terminations of pregnancy, gender reassignment surgeries and some contraceptive procedures will be cut at hospitals across the country, Calvary Health Care has confirmed.

The Catholic health organisation is set to more than double its hospital portfolio when it takes over 16 hospitals across Australia by the end of the month following the financial collapse of Healthscope.

Calvary Health Care has confirmed services will be cut at Newcastle Private.Nathan PerriIts Catholic code of ethical standards will be enforced across all its new hospitals, but some of the new acquisitions will not be impacted as they largely specialise in mental health.

At Newcastle Private, the changes will come into effect on December 1, after which any doctor who performs a banned procedure will face “disciplinary action”, obstetricians were told during a Wednesday evening meeting with Calvary Health Care leaders.

Newcastle Private obstetrician Dr Denise Nesbitt, who attended the meeting, said she would remain on staff at the hospital despite the limitations, to “keep looking after our women”.

“They can have whatever beliefs they want to live by as Catholics,” Nesbitt said. “But to remove choice from women and patients, to just walk into an established hospital [and] dictate medical decisions is outrageous.”

Doctors previously raised concerns that the takeover could contribute to a service desert in the region, with Newcastle the only private maternity hospital between Sydney and the Queensland border and the city a major centre for cancer treatment and palliative care.

Calvary Health Care released a statement on Thursday confirming the cuts.

“Where Calvary is unable to offer a particular service, admitted patients will continue to receive all other care and support,” the statement read. “The acquisitions will provide greater stability for the hospitals, their employees and the communities they serve.”

Dr Peter Harrigan called Calvary’s statement “unsatisfactory”.Dr Peter Harrigan, a consultant anaesthetist who has worked at Newcastle Private for two decades, said the statement was “unsatisfactory”.

“This is a significant downgrading of healthcare in the area,” he said. “People in the hospital will receive suboptimal treatment because of the denial of that service and … will need to be moved around, which increases their suffering.”

The hospital’s licence transfer is currently under review with NSW Health following community feedback, while Calvary’s national expansion is also under consideration by the ACCC.

NSW Health Minister Ryan Park said services remained available throughout the public system and other private hospitals.

Obstetrician at Newcastle Private Dr Tanya McKenny said it was “incredibly naive and offensive to ask [public clinicians] to shoulder even more of the load”.

“I’m really disappointed by the response of the health minister that they’re under no obligation to add pressure,” she said. “To say that it’s an easy fix, that these services will move elsewhere, is simply not possible.”

Independent member for Lake Macquarie Greg Piper said government assurances that services remained available within the public sector were “not good enough”.

“I’m not convinced the public sector has capacity,” he said.

Ramsay Health Care, which provides reproductive and end-of-life care in the Hunter, said on Tuesday it was exploring expanded service offerings in the region, including IVF.

Park told a press conference on Tuesday that the government does not control clinical services provided by private hospitals, but would work with clinicians across the community to ensure people in the Hunter still have access.

“We don’t determine when a private hospital provider is going to sell, and we don’t determine who is the buyer,” Park said.

“[We] provide a licence around a fit and proper person, that is, a fit and proper organisation and a management team that will lead a hospital. That’s our licensing requirement.”

NSW Health Minister Ryan Park said the government cannot determine the offerings of a private hospital.Sam MooyPark said the NSW Health Secretary was yet to determine whether Calvary met this criteria, but said he did not want to see the whole hospital lost to the community.

“There’s not a huge number of buyers for private hospitals at the moment, so we’ve also got to balance to make sure that we can continue to provide those services.”

The government also tabled its response to an inquiry concerning Calvary’s other hospital in Newcastle, the Calvary Mater, on Thursday.

The Mater’s public-private partnership (PPP) came under scrutiny after maggots fell from ceiling vents onto patients, forcing operators to close wards and cancel surgeries.

The scathing inquiry found the arrangement – in which Calvary and NSW Health ran hospital services, but private company NovaCare maintained the facility – jeopardised the health of patients, prevented accountability and was a poor use of taxpayer funds.

In its response, the NSW government committed to a “health check” of all PPPs in its portfolio, which will assess governance, patient and staff safety, contract management, asset stewardship, intervention readiness and value for money.

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