‘Joe’s Law’: Hospital public-private partnerships to be banned in NSW after toddler’s death

A Health Services Bill amendment will be introduced later today to ban all future public-private hospital partnerships at acute hospitals to protect them against privatisation.

Health Minister Ryan Park said the change will keep public hospitals in public hands.

“The model that is Northern Beaches Hospital is not a model we believe should be running our hospitals here in New South Wales,” he said.

“We cannot afford for this type of model to be in place again.” 

Joe, who had hypovolemia which occurs when the body loses too much fluid, had to wait more than two-and-a-half hours for a bed at the Northern Beaches Hospital on September 14.

His mother Elouise’s pleas for intravenous fluids were rejected and Joe was later taken to Sydney Children’s Hospital in Randwick, where he died.

Minns said the legislation will ensure no other family goes through what the Massa family have experienced — “every parent’s worst nightmare”.

“There’s a bottom line here, and the bottom line is that healthcare should not primarily be about making profit, it should be about saving lives and ensuring people get healthy, and that’s what the health system is designed to do,” he said.

“And we can’t forget that, not with the dollars and cents that run through a budget, not with the profit and loss, not with the annual budget result, not with all of the intricacies of complicated contracts with private companies.

“The bottom line is that you can get back to your family, that you are protected, that you’re getting the world’s best care. Clearly, that didn’t happen for baby Joe and the Massa’s have shown that we need to do everything possible to ensure that another family doesn’t go through the same tragedy.”

Parents Elouise and Danny Massam, at the press conference alongside Minns and Park, said they had heavy hearts but were grateful to welcome the proposed legislation.

“Today is a monumental day for every single person in New South Wales who deserves to know that they will be taken care of when they enter a public emergency department,” Elouise said.

“We feel the moral compass in our healthcare has been reset. Today we have said, and we are standing with the government to say, enough is enough.

“Every single person in New South Wales deserves better and they will, this is one step in the right direction to ensuring that.”

Park will introduce the legislation to amend the Health Services Act in the NSW Legislative Assembly today. It will need bipartisan support to pass. 

Healthscope is implementing recommendations from the Serious Adverse Event Review into Joe’s death and the Clinical Excellence Commission is leading another review into the systems and processes around paediatric care at Northern Beaches Hospital.