Shadow Health Minister Sarah Mitchell has slammed the Minns government over maintenance and infrastructure failures at the Calvary Mater hospital, saying "no one has been held to account".
The Mater mould and maintenance inquiry report, tabled yesterday in NSW Parliament, recommended that the government terminate the hospital's public-private partnership (PPP).
It also recommended that ownership and management of the Mater transfer to NSW Health as soon as possible.
Ms Mitchell, a Nationals MP, said "this inquiry has done the job the Minns Labor Government refused to do".
Ms Mitchell said the inquiry "confirms what patients, staff and whistleblowers have been telling us for months - the Mater's PPP has failed and no one has been held to account".
"While the community and frontline workers have been crying out for answers, Minister Park has sat on his hands, ducking all accountability and responsibility.
"We've all heard the horrific stories and allegations of falsified records from staff and patients alike - Minister Park has no excuses left. He needs to stop hiding behind public servants and the complexity of a PPP that was set up by Labor."
Ms Mitchell said the Minns government "must accept the recommendations of the committee and commit to bringing the Mater back into public hands".
NSW Health Minister Ryan Park said the government was "reviewing all options" for the future of the PPP.
"We will also consider the parliamentary inquiry report and respond in due course," Mr Park said in a statement.
The PPP is between Sydney-based Novacare Health and NSW Health's Health Administration Corporation (HAC), which closely involves Hunter New England Health.
The report found that the PPP "enabled very serious infrastructure and maintenance problems, and subsequent service failures, across the hospital".
Dr Cohn, the NSW Greens spokesperson for health, said "hospital management and the NSW government knew about these problems for years and didn't take action to address them".
The Newcastle Herald asked the minister if he would hold anyone in the health bureaucracy accountable for the Mater's failures, but he didn't directly answer the question.
Mr Park blamed the private arm of the PPP for the hospital's maintenance issues.
"It's really important to note the maintenance issues arising at the facility are the responsibility of Novacare," Mr Park said.
However, the inquiry has highlighted there is a dispute over whether Novacare, maintenance contractor Honeywell and/or the NSW government are responsible to cover the cost of the hospital's infrastructure failures.
Inquiry chair Amanda Cohn said the inquiry "exposed a deeply flawed PPP model at the hospital, where a convoluted contractual framework directly contributed to years of infrastructure failures".
"Rather than resolving serious problems such as non-compliant cladding and obsolete heating, ventilation and air-conditioning technology, parties to the PPP instead remain deadlocked in legal disputes regarding who was responsible for what and, critically, who should pay," Dr Cohn said.
"The result of this repeated inaction has been devastating. The report outlines the tangible impact on patients, healthcare delivery, staff morale and the community's trust in a hospital that was once a source of great pride."
Mater nurse Camilla Smith, a member of the NSW Nurses and Midwives Association, said there was "no way" the government could spend taxpayers' money to fix the hospital's problems and then leave Honeywell and Novacare in charge.
"How can we trust them," Ms Smith said, adding that maintenance issues remained at the hospital.
She added that unless the government ended the PPP and governance issues were resolved, "we could go right back to where we started".
She was concerned that James O'Brien, Honeywell's facilities director and maintenance manager at the Mater, was still working there.
He was accused of corruption during the inquiry, which he denied.
Mr O'Brien used a legal loophole to avoid attending the inquiry. One of the inquiry's recommendations is that the Minns government close this loophole.
Novacare said in May that it could enter voluntary administration.
Mr Park said the government was "ready to intervene in a way that ensures we continue that service most effectively".
"But I've also got a responsibility to make sure that taxpayers' money is spent wisely, and at the moment we have a contract," he said.
"I'm accountable for it, and that's why I'm working through it with my team at the highest level, including meeting as late as yesterday with Treasury and NSW Health officials."
Mr Park said "this PPP with Novacare is complex".
"Nevertheless, this government has gotten on with the job of stepping in to rectify the cladding, as well as cleaning," he said.
"I am pleased to announce the completion of cladding replacement on the facades of the Mater Institute and southern end of south block."
