The ACT government is yet to pay Calvary the full compensation for its forcible acquisition of Bruce hospital, with the two sides still negotiating the final amount payable to the Catholic health care organisation.
It's been one year since ACT Health Minister Rachel Stephen-Smith announced the government would compulsorily acquire Calvary Public Hospital Bruce, which is now called North Canberra Hospital.
The government's decision to acquire the hospital prompted an unsuccessful legal challenge from Calvary, who had been running the publicly funded hospital since 1979.
The acquisition legislation requires the government to provide compensation to Calvary. The government has already paid $23 million for costs associated with the transition, such as redundancy payments and data transfer.
The final amount is expected to be far greater, however, the government said it was waiting for Calvary to provide its primary claim.
"To date, the ACT government has received several claims from Calvary Health Care ACT. Those claims are being dealt with according to the process in the regulation," an ACT government spokesman said.
"The ultimate details including amount of any just terms compensation will be largely dependent on Calvary's primary claim."
Legislation passed the territory's parliament last May and the government officially took control of the hospital on July 3, 2023. The government also developed a regulation to govern how compensation for Calvary would be determined.
Under the government's regulation, the territory is responsible for paying for the market value of the crown lease for the hospital land on acquisition day, any reasonable increase or decrease in the value of the hospital land and any costs incurred by Calvary through the transition.
But the regulation also recognises Calvary was given the land for free and it was held by the organisation at no charge. It also recognises certain buildings and improvements on the land were funded by the territory.
Property industry insiders have previously told The Canberra Times the acquisition could be valued at more than $200 million.
Meanwhile, North Canberra Hospital faced an accreditation review earlier this year, which it passed.
Freedom of information documents show health authorities were concerned about the results of the accreditation, which was scheduled to take place between October 2023 to March 2024.
"Not achieving accreditation would result in a breach of the public health code of practice, reputation damage, low morale in the workforce and financial cost associated with additional assessment and staffing hours to attain accreditation," a ministerial briefing said.
"There would also be public and political criticism towards the ACT government following the controversial compulsory acquisition of NCH in July 2023."
Authorities had asked for the accreditation visit to be delayed so the acquisition could be completed and new systems could be embedded but this was rejected by the regulator.
There was a mock assessment in November, which suggested the hospital would not have passed without a range of recommendations. These related to the acquisition, the digital health record, facilities and care.
The hospital faced a snap accreditation review in late-February. A Canberra Health Services spokesman said the hospital had met the accreditation standards but five of those standards did include recommendations.
"The five 'met with recommendation' actions focused on policy, training in specific areas and a risk assessment process," the spokesman said.
