Hedge funds weight up longer-term ownership of collapsed Healthscope
Major international hedge funds which now control large parts of Healthscope's $1.6 billion debt are not ruling out running the failed private health hospital as longer-term shareholders if they cannot find a buyer for the business, but are facing resistance from a big landlord.
London's Polus Capital and Los Angeles-headquartered Canyon Partners own about 30 per cent of the debt owed by the country's second-largest private healthcare operator, which collapsed into administration earlier this month, leaving the long-term future of its 37 hospitals uncertain.
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ABC News
7 hours ago
- ABC News
Whistleblowers say warnings about patient safety at Northern Beaches Hospital were ignored
Whistleblowers from Sydney's Northern Beaches Hospital say repeated warnings about unsafe conditions have been ignored for years, as internal documents reveal a system in crisis. Senior doctors have raised alarms about dangerously low levels of junior medical doctors, inadequate equipment, and failing technology since 2018. They say many of those warnings were ignored, with internal documents revealing direct harm to patients. A senior anaesthetist wrote that after hours there was no capacity within their team to deal with a third patient, whether that be an emergency caesarean or epidural, and that essential equipment was often left broken, with staff told to "steal one from another theatre". In late 2023, 18 emergency department specialists formally warned Healthscope management that patient safety and staff wellbeing was at risk due to dangerously low night staffing, and severe access block with very sick patients being left in the waiting room and other unmonitored environments due to a lack of beds. "We have all seen direct harm to patients from these occurrences and will expect further major harm if these issues are not resolved promptly," the group wrote. Dr Patrick Coleman, a nephrologist who has worked at the hospital since its opening, said the crisis was predictable. "It was never going to work. "We were ignored. But that's exactly what happened." Northern Beaches Hospital is run by private operator Healthscope, which collapsed into receivership last month. The 37 hospitals they run across Australia are now for sale. Northern Beaches Hospital delivers public hospital services under a controversial public-private partnership. NSW Health Minister Ryan Park told 7.30 the government was negotiating to bring the hospital into public hands, but warned it would not be cheap. "There will be significant costs, without a doubt. We'll probably have to change the way in which it's staffed, there's likely to be issues with their IT system that we have to address – those two things alone are likely to be significant, we understand that," Mr Park said. Healthscope CEO Tino La Spina welcomed the NSW government's plan to take over the hospital but warned the hospital system across Australia was in trouble, saying there was a "chronic underfunding of the private hospital sector by the private health insurers". He says he is proud of Northern Beaches Hospital's overall performance record. "We continue to operate a safe hospital there," he said. "All of the key performance measures suggest that we are a safe hospital and safer than others in New South Wales." Sydney's Northern Beaches were once served by two smaller public hospitals at Manly and Mona Vale. But as the region's population grew, frontline staff said they were running on fumes. "Manly and Mona Vale were getting death by 1,000 cuts," respiratory physician Keith Burgess said. In 2014 the NSW Liberal government announced the two hospitals would be shut and replaced with a single, more modern facility, delivered through a public-private partnership (PPP). It was a model with a troubled past. Previous PPP hospitals nationally had failed, including in Mildura, Victoria and Port Macquarie in New South Wales. But Professor Burgess said he was willing to give it a go. His colleague Dr Coleman was optimistic at first. "I thought, 'Hallelujah, finally we're going to have a new hospital,'" Dr Coleman said. He joined the new hospital's medical advisory committee, eager to help shape the way the hospital would run. But in the months leading up to the hospital opening, Dr Coleman raised urgent concerns. He warned management their plan to hire too few junior doctors was dangerous for a facility expected to treat large numbers of older, more complex patients. "It was patently obvious that the model that was proposed was utterly absurd," he told 7.30. But he says his warnings were dismissed. "I wasn't getting a response. I felt that I was wasting my time," he said. Frustrated, he resigned from the medical advisory committee but kept raising the alarm. "I said it verbally. I said it at meetings and I said it in writing. It didn't make any difference." The hospital finally opened on October 30, 2018. The early days were rocky. Within 48 hours the CEO quit. The anaesthetics department threatened a walkout and, according to Professor Burgess, conditions on the wards were chaotic. "The Healthscope team hadn't stocked the shelves and a whole lot of the basic equipment was not available in the wards," he said. Within eight months a parliamentary inquiry was launched into the hospital's operations and management. Healthscope apologised and promised improvements. In the years since, the Northern Beaches Hospital has been repeatedly engulfed in crises. In February the family of two-year-old Joe Massa went public after his tragic death following critical delays in care at this hospital. The backlash was swift. The NSW government proposed a ban on any future public-private hospital partnerships. And in April the family of deceased toddler Harper Atkinson told 7.30 their story. Emergency doctor Cliff Reid says his colleagues in the emergency department are bearing the brunt of public fury. "Our team has been called 'baby killers'. A junior doctor has had a threat of her tyres being slashed as she was walking into the department," Dr Reid said. "Nurses have been spat on … all following recent negative publicity in the media about the hospital." He said the community should trust the care they receive at the hospital. Despite the concerns he has continued to raise Dr Coleman says patients receive an excellent level of care at the hospital, considering the low numbers of staff, when compared to other hospitals in the area. However, he says it comes at a cost with staff stretched to breaking point. 7.30 has obtained internal hospital records and written staff testimonies that reveal the extent of the crisis. In October 2024, a senior emergency physician warned the ED was fully staffed with junior doctors only 9 per cent of the time, which is just over 15 hours a week, and that the situation was expected to worsen this year. Dr Reid has defended the hospital's executive, saying some of these concerns have been addressed. "From a clinical service delivery point of view our emergency department is very highly performing, has amazing staff, an incredible high culture, a dedicated team that saves lives every day," he said. Mr La Spina denied the hospital's problems were due to cost cutting. "We will never, and I repeat never, put profits ahead of patient care, ever," he told 7.30. "It's what we're all about here and we've got amazing clinicians that come to work every single day to give their best." A second parliamentary inquiry into Northern Beaches Hospital is now underway. And while submissions are confidential, 7.30 has obtained more distressing staff testimonies. One anaesthetist wrote that staffing levels in their department were very unsafe and that on one occasion "we had absolutely zero capacity to deal with any emergency at all during a normal weekday". He warned that after hours "there is no capacity for a third patient, whether it be for an emergency caesarean or an epidural for a woman in labour". Trainee supervision is also falling far below national standards, according to the submission. He wrote that anaesthetist trainees were supervised only 4 per cent of the time instead of the ANZCA (Australia New Zealand College of Anaesthetists) recommended 80 per cent, or a bare minimum of 50 per cent supervision. The department's equipment was also highlighted, with the anaesthetist documenting that the hospital was failing to replace broken or missing essential equipment. "We were told if we don't have one to just try and steal one from another theatre," he wrote. Ultrasound access for their department was documented as dangerously inadequate, as the unit had only two for 16 theatres, instead of the usual one per operating theatre. "The cardiac anaesthetists have taken to stealing and deliberately hiding the ultrasound machines 'in case' they need it," he said. The only other ultrasound technology available to their department is critically outdated. The anaesthetist wrote that a sales representative once confessed to him that Northern Beaches Hospital bought the cheapest model and that "it is the only hospital in the world to buy this model". Staff have raised concerns about inadequate technology since before the hospital opened its doors in October 2018. However 7.30 can reveal that many of those issues persist, even seven years on. In the medical staff council's submission to the auditor-general inquiry, it said that Riskman — the technology used to monitor adverse events — is grossly underused due to being excessively time-consuming and that the data obtained and used by Healthscope to reflect safety records may not be accurate. Keith Burgess, president of the medical staff council, told 7.30 he had never used Riskman. "Certainly I can't think of any senior doctor who has acknowledged that they've used it," he said. Following the death of Joe Massa, the an independent review recommended critical changes were needed for the hospital's electronic medical records (EMR) system. Dr Coleman says the EMR has had some improvements but it continues to be problematic to this day. "The EMR system was constantly crashing. There were times when the EMR system was crashed for hours at a time," he said. "Nobody can access the patient's medications. They can't alter the medications, they can't prescribe medications, they can't look at the patient's observations." He says NSW Health and the local health district absolved itself of responsibility of the operation of the hospital and it should now be held accountable. Watch 7.30, Mondays to Thursdays 7:30pm on ABC iview and ABC TV Do you know more about this story? Get in touch with 7.30 here.
ABC News
7 hours ago
- ABC News
America's economic and political chaos has implications for Australia
The gripping stoush between Donald Trump and Elon Musk was emblematic of America's slide into a kind of corrupt flakiness. Yesterday's decision to call in the National Guard to put down immigration protests in Los Angeles was equally gripping, but much more serious. Californian governor Gavin Newsom called it "purposefully inflammatory", which looks spot on. Remember Trump's use of emergency declarations to impose tariffs. Meanwhile, tanks were rolling into Washington DC ahead of the big autocracy-esque military parade on June 14, which happens to be the president's birthday. America has become a bewildering blend of the ridiculous and the deadly serious, and the implications of this for Australia are profound. The unserious nature of the place is reflected in the nation's president and richest person fighting in public: picture Anthony Albanese and Gina Rinehart abusing each other on social media. But that analogy falls well short because only two weeks ago Musk was a close adviser and effectively a member of cabinet, responsible for the closure of significant government programs, tens of thousands of retrenchments from the federal public service and a full re-ordering and centralising of government data on all Americans. Now, Musk is outside the tent, as they say, weeing in, except it's a torrent, including ferocious opposition to Trump's "One Big Beautiful Bill". That 1,038-page bill with its ludicrous official title, and all sorts of unrelated things thrown in so it would be hard for Congress to reject each bit, was an earlier sign that the United States has become a bit of a joke and not a serious country anymore. What's not a joke is that the oligarch Musk obviously thought he had bought the presidency and is complaining now that having spent $US300 million getting Trump elected, the guy is not doing what he is told. "Such ingratitude," he posted on X. In response, Trump threatened to terminate Musk's government contracts, not because they're bad contracts but because he's "disappointed" with Musk. As economist Paul Krugman wrote on Substack: "The point is that both men start from the presumption that the US government is an entirely corrupt enterprise, with the president in a position to hand out personal favours or engage in personal acts of vengeance." Examples of America's unseriousness have been building to the point where the US isn't even a comprehensible ally, let alone a reliable one, or a safe place to invest — global investors are now steadily reducing their exposure to American assets. The tariffs on the ridiculously named "Liberation Day", April 2, were a hastily assembled mess. The ones other than the arbitrary 10 per cent "base tariff" were calculated with a simple sum using each country's trade deficit, which was plainly bonkers, and included uninhabited islands as well as tiny countries that had virtually no trade with the US. And then, a week later, they were replaced by a whole new set of tariffs. Then Trump complained that China won't do a deal, having been whacked with the threat of a 145 per cent tariff, which was reduced to 30 per cent for no apparent reason. Then Trump asked for a phone call with Xi Jinping, got it, and then meekly chickened out, confirming his TACO nickname (Trump Always Chickens Out). Trump met German Chancellor Friedrich Merz last week and, with cameras rolling, Merz noted that the following day, June 6, would be the 80th anniversary of D Day. "That was not a pleasant day for you," said Trump. "This is not a great day." Merz replied: "This was the liberation of my country from Nazi dictatorship." Oh, right. Last Wednesday, without warning, Trump banned citizens of 12 countries from travelling to the US. Before that, he posted that "Because of Tariffs, our Economy is BOOMING!", which is plainly divorced from reality. The Bureau of Economic Analysis had announced a week earlier that the US economy contracted by 0.2 per cent in the March quarter, and a few hours later, the OECD predicted that growth in the United States will decline from 2.8 per cent in 2024 to 1.6 per cent in 2025 and 1.5 per cent in 2026. At about the same time, the Congressional Budget Office released an assessment of the impact of the tariff policy, saying it would raise inflation and slow economic growth as consumers bear the cost of them. The CBO also produced an analysis of the "One Big Beautiful Bill", which it said would add $US2.4 trillion to the deficit over the next decade because the $US1.3 trillion in spending cuts won't fully offset the $US3.7 trillion in tax cuts. By the way, the Big Beautiful Bill also contains a "revenge" provision that would allow the US government to impose extra taxes on foreign investors whose home countries have policies America doesn't like, which is not the sort thing that's going to endear a country to foreign investors. As a result of all this, the "American exceptionalism" that was the foundation of global investment and finance for decades, is over. Does that mean the US dollar will lose its place as the world's reserve currency, a position it has held since 1944? Probably not, but its monopoly is under threat. As exceptionalism dims, there will be a shift towards other currencies, mainly the euro and, to some extent, the Japanese yen and Chinese yuan. The US dollar still accounts for 58 per cent of global foreign exchange reserves, and the euro is second at 20 per cent. The fact that gold is hitting new record highs, and the euro has appreciated 15 per cent this year, shows that central banks and global investors are looking for foreign exchange alternatives. The US dollar has about half of SWIFT transactions (it's the global banking communications network), with the euro second at 22 per cent. While the US dollar is used in 55 per cent of global trade, the euro is next at 30 per cent. There is no complete alternative for the US dollar in sight at this stage, but that could change, and even a 10 per cent reduction in its use in trade, foreign exchange and banking would have a meaningful impact on asset valuations in the US, including shares. Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese is due to meet Trump later this month, and like other heads of state who have ventured into the White House, he could quite easily take a beating in the Oval Office, on camera. Trump seems to think Australia has a ban on American beef, which isn't true, but the Australian PM could still find himself arguing biosecurity with an aggressively uncomprehending American president. Beyond that meeting, Australia needs to rethink its relationship with the United States. We've done quite well maintaining a wary, non-trusting trade relationship with China. We now need a wary, non-trusting security alliance with the US, if that's even possible. Alan Kohler is finance presenter and columnist on ABC News and he also writes for Intelligent Investor.
News.com.au
a day ago
- News.com.au
The best thing that's ever happened in a business class cabin
Not since the advent of the lie-flat bed, has a business class offering been more of a gamechanger. OK, this might only be true if you've got as much of a sweet tooth as I do, but hear me out – you're cruising along at 38,000 feet, feet up on your glorious recliner, full of your gourmet dinner, when something absolutely glorious, and unexpected, comes rattling down the aisle. An ice cream sundae cart! With all the trimmings! On a plane! I rest my case. United Airlines is famous for this particular in-flight miracle, which has reached icon status among its passengers. After your meal, the cart comes along, offering to adorn your vanilla or chocolate ice cream scoop with hot fudge sauce, whipped cream, slivered toasted almonds, M & Ms and a cherry on top. If there's a better food experience on a plane, I haven't had it. New cabins Last month, United Airlines unveiled its new United Elevated interior, which includes sliding privacy doors for all business class seats, and a brand new studio suite experience. There are eight of the new seats in each upgraded cabin, located at the front of each business class section. They are 25 per cent larger than the standard business offering and offer even more privacy. I flew from Sydney to LA on the standard Polaris service, here's how it went down. Baggage Like most business class offerings, your ticket includes two free checked bags, up to 32kg each, which is a challenge I was unable to meet, with my puny 22kg offering. You're also entitled to Premier Access, which is essentially a priority check-in lane, and the promise of seeing your bags faster on the other side with priority bag handling. Lounge Polaris customers also get access to United Polaris lounges, where they are available (currently there are six, Chicago O'Hare, Houston Intercontinental, LAX, New York Newark, San Francisco and Washington Dulles). Don't worry, if there's no Polaris Lounge at your departure airport, you will get access to a partner lounge of your choice. I used the Polaris Lounge at LAX. It features deluxe shower rooms with Therabody products, an a la carte restaurant (order the famous burger and the skillet cookie, even if you're not hungry, trust me on this) as well as a buffet for lighter meal options. If you're already tired, there's a private rest area with daybeds, soft lighting and white noise to help you rest and relax The seats Like many business class offerings, the staggered 1-2-1 seat configuration means every seat is an aisle seat, but window seats are definitely the pick of the bunch. But not all window seats are created equal – to enable a full lie-flat experience, the seats are offset, with one being right next to the window, the next being closer to the aisle and so forth. This makes seats 1L or 9L superior choices, as they are both front of their respective parts of the cabin, closest to the windows and with the most privacy and least disturbance from the aisle. There was lots of legroom, as expected, and top notch extras, including noise-reducing headphones, bedding from Saks Fifth Avenue, premium toiletries and premium mattress toppers available on request (please, tell me, who is not requesting a complimentary 'mattress cloud'?). Food In addition to the expected champagne on arrival, the meals were excellent on my flight. The main meal is an event, with warmed mixed nuts, a main you can pre-order before you fly (I chose roasted salmon with hollandaise and pearl couscous) salad, bread and the aforementioned sundae. Still hungry after your movie is over? They offer midnight snacks, including an extremely melty grilled cheese sandwich, available anytime, and a snack bar you can help yourself to. The app It can be hard to stand out in a saturated airline market where most offerings are variations on the same thing, but United's app is where it truly shines. I've never come across such an efficient and user-friendly airline app experience. You can obviously plan and book using it, but it's once you arrive at the airport that it comes into its own. My gate changed, no worries, I got a notification. Boarding about to start? told me that too. In-flight I was updated about changes to our arrival time and upon landing, it knew my bag was about to come out onto the carousel before it was visible. There's also a terminal guide, meal and seat choices and delay and cancellation options but it's the real-time notifications, taking some of the stress and uncertainty out of travel, that gets my vote.
