The mother of a young boy who died after a series of administrative errors took place at Northern Beaches Hospital has praised the NSW government for its “unprecedented” choice to take over the once privately-operated hospital.
On Wednesday, the hospital will officially transition to full public ownership under NSW Health after a series of government probes found serious administrative and financial shortfalls were causing significant damage to the hospital’s ability to adequately care for patients.
The most glaring instance of poor management came in September 2024, when two-year-old Joe Massa died because of a critical misdiagnosis.
It resulted in a fatal cardiac arrest shortly after his parents brought him into the emergency ward.
Staff initially believed the boy was suffering from gastroenteritis due to a reported bout of vomiting, and neglected to rediagnose him after his mother Elouise noticed his heartbeat was rising rapidly.
It was eventually found that Joe was suffering from hypovolemia – a severe lack of fluids.
Speaking to NewsWire, Ms Massa said the transition phase was “one of the very last pieces of the puzzle” which she and Joe’s father Danny had been tirelessly advocating for since their son died.
“For me, as a local mum, knowing that our emergency department will now be in state hands means that if you have an imminently life-threatening condition, then you have a far greater chance of survival now than you would have had in 2024,” Ms Massa said.
“I was told that I was asking for too much and that I should be careful, but I knew that what I was doing was right … to work proactively and collaboratively with the government was so important and I’m so grateful for their collaboration and their partnership on this,” she said.
“It’s a huge milestone.”
In the aftermath of her son’s death, Ms Massa advocated strongly for an overhaul in early intervention processes which place a high level of importance on the intuition of parents and family members of patients admitted into hospitals.
Established in late March by NSW Health, the “Raise It” program established an urgent care helpline that parents and families can access if they feel like their loved one needs an immediate reassessment from hospital staff.
“It doesn’t matter what state-run hospital you’re in New South Wales, you will have a senior clinician on the other line answering your call immediately, and they will escalate your concerns,” Ms Massa said.
“This information will save lives.”
NSW Health Minister Ryan Park said wrestling ownership back over the hospital, which has included a near-total transition of staff from Healthscope to NSW Health, had been “an enormously challenging piece of work” so far, but would ultimately succeed.
“It’s important that while we transition the hospital over that nothing slips through the cracks … this is probably one of the single biggest reforms this government has undertaken,” Mr Park said.
“We’re doing this at a fast-forward pace so it’s beyond challenging, but we want to get the transition right … I’m not going to pretend there’s not going to be bumps along the way. That would be foolish. This is a challenging piece of work and it involves a live hospital – we aren’t dealing with static assets like road transfer or anything like that,” he said.
Mr Park said the staff at Northern Beaches Hospital had been dealt with “a pretty difficult set of circumstances” but that 96% of those who received job offers from NSW Health had taken them.
“When your hospital is in the spotlight every other day, it becomes quite challenging, and one of the reasons we’ve been moving so quickly is because we needed to stabilise the workforce and provide certainty to the community,” Mr Park said.
“We’ve done that very pleasingly.”
