Tasmania’s busiest private hospital maternity service will shut in just six months’ time. Healthscope says the service at the Hobart Private Hospital is no long viable. Leaving a gap of 600 births a year, with an uncertain path ahead for women and the rest of the state’s health services.
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00:00A rumoured closure, now reality. The Hobart Private Hospital's maternity services to cease
00:09from August 20.
00:10We've made this decision because of significant staffing issues that have made maintaining
00:16a stable and reliable maternity service increasingly difficult.
00:21Healthscope is also closing its Darwin service, citing declining birth rates there. It's another
00:27hit to women's health services in Tasmania South. In 2023, Healthscope closed the St
00:33Helen's Private Hospital, including its mother and baby unit.
00:38It is a slight on the health care of women in Tasmania and more broadly around the country.
00:48Today has been an emotional day at work for obstetrician Emily Price. Multiple women have
00:53contacted her, uncertain of how they'll be affected. Many had births already booked for
00:59late August and September.
01:01It is a very uncertain time for a lot of people and pregnancy is already a stressful time
01:07so I guess our job as obstetricians is to try to minimise that stress and to come up
01:12with a suitable alternative.
01:13The closure will leave Calvary as the only other private provider in Hobart, and could
01:18see more women head into the public system.
01:21If there's only one private hospital, it's going to be incredibly difficult for them
01:24to pick up the entirety of that patient load.
01:27The Tasmanian Health Minister says she first heard of Healthscope's plans last week. The
01:32public system's now left holding the baby.
01:36Private hospitals is a federal government concern. It is their responsibility to fund
01:43private hospitals, to maintain their viability.
01:46National Health Minister Mark Butler says the private health system is facing several
01:50challenges, with hospitals and insurers needing to sort it out. A blame game with no winners.
01:57And with women's health services losing again.
02:00Josh Duggan, ABC News.