Calvary Health Care has told the ACT Supreme Court it plans to apply for an injunction to stop the government from forcibly acquiring the Catholic-owned Calvary Public Hospital.
Calvary had vowed to take its fight to the courts after the ACT Legislative Assembly yesterday passed legislation paving the way for the government to forcibly acquire the Bruce site.
The matter will be heard on Wednesday next week, and until then, ACT government officials will not be allowed on hospital grounds or to request information from Calvary.
In a statement, a Calvary Health Care spokesperson said in light of the Health Infrastructure Enabling Act 2023 passing the Legislative Assembly, it had sought both an injunction and an "urgent final hearing" of its challenge to the Act and associated regulation.
"This means it is business as usual at Calvary Public Hospital Bruce until Wednesday next week," the spokesperson said.
"The territory cannot exercise any rights to enter hospital land, require information from Calvary or otherwise require Calvary to cooperate with it to effect any transition of the public hospital from Calvary to the territory up to and including the final hearing date."
The substantive question for the court to consider will be whether the bill the government passed yesterday is valid.
Counsel for the government Nigel Oram pushed for more time to prepare but Chief Justice Lucy McCallum did not oblige, instead encouraging him to "squeeze himself into a vortex" to be ready.
"It is very tight, but I know that is imperative on the respondent's own legislation," Chief Justice McCallum said.
Despite Calvary's application, the ACT government today said it remained steadfast in its plans.
"We had hoped we would be able to reach an agreement with Calvary on a path forward … We were not able to, and that's why we went down the path we did in introducing and passing legislation," Health Minister Rachel Stephen-Smith said.
She urged Calvary Health Care "to support its team on the ground to transition to Canberra Health Services".
Ms Stephen-Smith again said the takeover bid was not motivated by the hospital's religious ownership, reiterating her belief that it was unjustifiable to spend $1 billion on a new northside hospital that would not be publicly owned.
She also argued there was currently a disconnect between Calvary and Canberra Health Services, which jointly operate Canberra's two public hospitals.
"We know that every day across our public hospital system, the current arrangements create challenges for clinicians and result in fragmented patient care."
Government committed to July 3 acquisition date
Ms Stephen-Smith did not directly address the legal proceedings but said her aim was to "deconflict" the ongoing stoush.
She reasserted her confidence that July 3 remained a "realistic acquisition date".
She said the "short" timeline, which has been slammed by Calvary Health Care, was to avoid a drawn out process, adding that Calvary Public Hospital's theatres were still damaged from an incident earlier this year.
"They're currently operating with three theatres rather than seven … and [the government will] provide certainty so that construction work can recommence," she said.
She said that Canberra Health Services had sought the advice of "experts who've been through mergers of hospitals into single networks before and their advice has very clearly been to do it as quickly as you can while doing it with the maintenance of safety and quality care".
Ms Stephen-Smith also rebuffed claims that Calvary Public Hospital staff were against the takeover, saying staff were instead impacted by the attention and conflict in the process.
"What we've heard from many staff now is that they understand the reasons for the decision ... and they now want the certainty of being able to get on with this transition," she said.
