The state government has done a deal with private healthcare provider Bethesda to ensure the Mount Hospital, which is currently in receivership under current operator Healthscope, can remain viable.
No financial details about the deal have been made available, but Treasurer Rita Saffioti said the costs to taxpayers will be revealed after a due diligence process is completed.
She and Premier Roger Cook said the government’s intervention guarantees a future for the 170-bed private hospital and will enable some public elective surgery to occur there.
“As part of our record investment in health we have bought a hospital (Mt Lawley), we are building a hospital, we’re redeveloping a hospital and now we’re securing the future of a hospital,” Mr Cook said.
He said the private cardiology, neurology and orthopaedic surgeries at the hospital were critical for the overall health system.
Ms Saffioti said the future of the Mount was in doubt because of Healthscope’s nationwide problems and that other governments had stepped in to save hospitals in their states.
Bethesda’s leasehold will be underwritten by the Cook government, and the guarantee will include covering the entitlements of the Mount’s staff and potentially financing upgrades to equipment in the CBD facility.
Bethesda chief executive Dr Neale Fong has been at the centre of negotiations and rejected any suggestion he had a conflict of interest because he is also on the state government’s payroll as chair of the Child and Adolescent Health Service.
“My role with the CAHS has nothing to do with Bethesda’s discussions or deal,” he said.
“It’s a win for the doctors and other staff at this hospital,” he said.
“It’s a win for the people of Western Australia.”
But when asked for her view, opposition health spokeswoman Libby Mettam said it was a conflict.
“I think it is a conflict of interest,” Ms Mettam said. “Questions do need to be asked particularly when there’s very little detail around what this contract represents.”
She also urged the government to provide more information about the deal saying part of the reason it’s happening is a failure to manage the state’s elective surgery needs.
“Currently, there are over 4,600 patients waiting on the elective surgery list longer than the doctors’ recommended timeframe,” she said.
The Mount was sold in 2023 to investor HealthCo for $147 million and leased to Healthscope before it entered receivership last year.
