My question is directed to the Minister for Health. Now that the Government has received David Swan's advice on future private health services at Northern Beaches Hospital, when will the Minister announce the long-term private services model for that hospital?

RESPONSE | Mr RYAN PARK, Minister for Health: I thank member for Wakehurst for his question. He, alongside the member for Pittwater, has advocated on behalf of that local community. People in the gallery might be aware that in April this year the New South Wales Government made the decision to take over the Northern Beaches Hospital. It was a landmark decision affecting the way health care operates in this State. As a part of that, we recognise that the community on the northern beaches has some of the highest levels of private health insurance in the country. It means that community will continue to have private health services, through elective surgery services, operating out of the hospital.

Mr David Swan, an expert who has worked across both the public and private sector, has done some work to provide advice to government. I inform the House that the Northern Sydney Local Health District is currently looking at that and will determine what is the next step and what further advice can be given to government. I will keep the community informed about that through their local members. It is a process that the Northern Sydney Local Health District, having received that report, is working on. We are at a significant moment in time, because it has been just under six months since that landmark transaction took place. We have transformed the way health care will be provided on the northern beaches. Most members in the Chamber, certainly those on our side, would agree that privatising that hospital was one of the worst decisions in history that the former Government made on health care. It is one of the worst on a number of fronts because we could have been cleaning up the mess for an additional five hospitals.

I inform the community, the House and the member of a significant change that has occurred in the hospital over the past five months. Public hospitals are resourced and staffed differently because we believe in having ratios that take account of nursing hours per patient per day. I inform the House there is now more than 220 additional healthcare workers at Northern Beaches Hospital. Of those, more than 100 are nurses. [Extension of time]

That is because members on our side of the House understand that health services are services for our community. They are not a business commodity or a profit-making machine. They are not an opportunity to pursue economic rationalism and idealism in a way that reduces public health services. They are designed to provide the best public health services that we can provide. We know who does that—the people who are the workers who deliver public services. I make it clear. We are investing in those people at the hospital because they are the people who continue to improve the way that health services are delivered.

However, there is an alternative. Under a One Nation coalition alliance, there is a distinct division in the way in which they would deliver public services. We know from those opposite that they are hell‑bent on privatisation. We know that because they wanted to privatise five additional hospitals. The New South Wales leader of One Nation recently said, "We do not need departments to have a crack. We need them to get out of the way." We have given the private sector the opportunity to run emergency departments at the Northern Beaches Hospital. It is a failed experiment that does not work. We have now taken that over and are working to boost the staff to improve public health services. We understand that investing in workers who deliver public services in turn increases the quality of public services, particularly health care in places like the northern beaches.

Read this Question in the NSW Hansard here.