Private Public Partnerships - Keep it in the Family

Public- private partnerships, a merge of private companies providing support to public projects, are an interesting arrangement where private companies form a consortium to design, build, maintain and provide support services to the new facilities for the Government.

PPPs are increasingly being used to construct schools, health care facilities, prisons and infrastructure because they reduce the risk to Government and provide economic opportunities to the private sector.

The benefits of PPPs are numerous. Firstly, the financial risks undertaken with huge projects are considerable therefore sharing the risks with the private sector is appealing. Additionally, by enabling governments to raise resources from the private sector, more services are made possible and available. And finally, it allows governments to expand on their projects without the risk of public borrowing.

However, in the case of health care, the majority of private companies are not health related businesses but rather, are in every other sector bar the health industry.

During the redevelopment of the Royal North Shore Hospital, the government was questioned by the public on exactly where the private funding money was going, with quite a significant amount of interest going into the non-health elements such as parking and food.

Perhaps the government should look into developing more partnerships between private Catholic healthcare and public hospitals. Because we’re dealing with a private hospital, the emphasis is on the healthcare aspect. Advantages such as elective surgery waiting lists and delays in emergency departments being slashed mean a more efficiently run centre as well as a wider net of healthcare being more readily available to the public sector.

Hawkesbury Hospital, which is run by Catholic Healthcare, is a private hospital with a public contract and has been held up as a model of how successful non-government hospitals (contracted to treat public patients) can be.

Catholic Health Australia (CHA) has advocated for healthcare partnerships between public and private hospitals for some time now. Unions between private and public hospitals would mean that, instead of building/purchasing for one hospital, that a variety of resources would be available to a wider list of patients not to mention the financial benefits of keeping all the economic matters within the healthcare system.
RESEARCHED AND EDITED BY: DANIELLA SERRET

SOURCES:

http://www.sydneycatholic.org/news/latest_news/2011/201147_1882.shtml

http://www.health.gov.au/internet/main/publishing.nsf/Content/59D93299276BE3A8CA25749800223B3B/$File/ocpahfsv4.pdf

http://ahha.asn.au/sites/default/files/imported/documents/publications/177/051024%20healthcare%20facilities%20planning%20and%20design%20conference%20FINAL.doc

http://www.austlii.edu.au/au/journals/UNSWLJ/2006/46.html

http://www.nscchealth.nsw.gov.au/rnsredevelopment/faqs/003835092.shtml

http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/news/sydney-nsw/hospital-plans-badly-flawed/story-e6freuzi-1111114538921

http://www.pwc.com.au/industry/healthcare/assets/Redesigning-Healthcare-Aug07.pdf