A Sydney hospital where a two-year-old boy died after he failed to get urgent care in its emergency department has been plagued by several disturbing incidents. 

Northern Beaches Hospital in Frenchs Forest was built from the ground up at a cost of $1billion and opened in 2018 as one of the crown jewels in the NSW healthcare system, coinciding with the closure of nearby Manly Hospital.

The heartbroken parents of Joe Massa have called on the government to reconsider its contract with Healthscope, the private company that runs the hospital, after their son was left in an emergency chair for two-and-a-half hours in September 2024.

The toddler had hypovolemia – a condition that occurs when the body loses too much fluid – after he had spent the previous night vomiting. His mother had pleaded that he be given IV fluids before he went into cardiac arrest and died two days later in ICU. 

The tragedy, and a subsequent strike action threatened by overworked and exhausted nurses, has once again put the hospital under scrutiny after a string of previous incidents sparked a 2019 parliamentary inquiry.

The 488-bed hospital was formed under a public-private partnership – a model which saw it built and run by private companies which the government pays, but that has attracted controversy over concerns about profit conflicting with patient care.

A senior anaesthetist resigned just weeks after the hospital opened, sending a scathing email to his bosses saying there were ‘fundamental systemic failings in the way the hospital has been set up and is currently running’.

‘Let me be clear, these are not teething problems,’ he said. 

In referencing an operation at the hospital his colleague was involved with, he said there was an ‘inadequate supply of equipment, insufficiently trained staff, poor protocols for simple requests such as a blood transfusion’ along with no plan if something went wrong.

He said that patient – Astrid McCrank who was having a ceasarean to deliver her premature baby Lilly – survived ‘somewhat against the odds’.

Ms McCrank told the ABC she recalled the operating team arguing with the blood bank because they were allocated two units of blood and they refused to do the operation until they had six. 

The anaesthetist, before he resigned, claimed the response after he raised his concerns about patient safety was essentially being told to ‘get on with it’.

Other incidents that occurred in the hospital’s first year included a cancer patient having the wrong side of his colon removed – which was attributed to a privately contracted laboratory mishandling pathology results. 

Healthscope was also accused of offering staff $500 incentives to get public emergency room patients to agree to use their private health cover.

In 2021, Joshua Gill, 14, died just days after he was discharged from mental health treatment at the hospital, with a coronial report finding he would have benefitted if the hospital had ‘capacity to offer age-appropriate inpatient treatment’.

Following a community campaign led by his family, the former Coalition government committed $7.5million in taxpayer funds to building a four-bed adolescent mental health, drug and alcohol unit at Northern Beaches Hospital.

In 2024, that was abandoned because the state government said Healthscope was unable to fulfill the commitment. 

In February this year, The Daily Telegraph reported overworked staff at the hospital were told they would have to share one of the maternity wards with a film crew who had rented it out for the day.

Staff were asked to provide hospital gowns and IV fluid on poles as props and that the film crew needed security access passes and computer logins.

While there is no suggestion of wrongdoing on behalf of the producers behind the upcoming Russell Crowe flick, Health Services Union secretary Gerard Hayes said it raised questions about whether patient care should trump generating income.

The 2019 Parliamentary inquiry recommended that no more public-private partnerships be used to provide hospitals in the state. 

The Northern Beaches Hospital remains the only such hospital after plans for more of the facilities were scrapped and Port Macquarie Base Hospital was bought back by the government.

Joe Massa’s parents, Danny and Elouise Massa, are demanding an Independent and Public Review into the hospital, public awareness of parent and carer’s rights to escalate concerns and an IT system upgrade to prevent critical miscalculations.

‘The NSW Government [should] re-evaluate its contract with Healthscope and ensure that private operators prioritise patient safety over profit,’ they said. 

When questioned by The Manly Observer, the office of NSW Health Minister Ryan Park said, ‘it is typically very difficult to unwind a privatised service’.

Healthscope said in a statement that ‘Northern Beaches Hospital offers its deepest condolences to the Massa family for the loss of their son, Joe. 

‘We recognize Joe’s death has caused unimaginable heartache and grief for the family. We have met with the family to apologise and hear directly about their tragic experience and to discuss the findings of the Serious Adverse Event Review. 

‘We will continue to support the family in any way that we can as we implement the improvements identified in the review, including improvements around triaging processes and internal escalation processes.’