Rumours had been swirling for months of a bid by the ACT government to take over Calvary Public Hospital in Bruce.
What took some by surprise — including stakeholders like the Australian Medical Association, who support the idea — was the speed at which the government moved.
The announcement was made on Wednesday of this week, and on Thursday the enabling bill was introduced in the Legislative Assembly.
Along with it came a motion — which passed — suspending the requirement for any committee inquiry into the bill to table a report before the proposal is debated.
The plan is for Canberra Health Services to take over delivery of public health services at Calvary's Bruce campus in just two months' time.
The government has had its eye on Calvary for more than a decade, but with sustained pressure on the health system and a commitment to start work on a new hospital by 2025, speed is of the essence.
Following news of the takeover, Health Minister Rachel Stephen-Smith conceded the government's relationship with the Catholic operator had, at times, been strained.
"Fragmentation and barriers to genuinely integrated and networked hospitals remain," she said.
It left the Bruce hospital without maternity services for weeks.
Special arrangements were made just to allow some Calvary staff to work at the Canberra Hospital, but they could not simply be redeployed to Woden — and some opted not to go.
This put increased strain on beleaguered Canberra Hospital staff who were already struggling in the wake of the pandemic.
The ACT government wanted a new, 25-year agreement with Calvary for health services to replace the existing agreement, which had 76 years left to run.
Ms Stephen-Smith said that was just "one of the sticking points" over which negotiations broke down — and ultimately ended in January this year.
There had been mounting political pressure, too.
For the Canberra Liberals, the capital's hospital system and its myriad problems in recent years have been low-hanging fruit.
Acting opposition leader Jeremy Hanson had in recent weeks launched a campaign calling for a royal commission into the ACT's health system and has said the Canberra Liberals will take a commitment to that level of inquiry to the next ACT election.
And while the government's takeover will look to many to be decisive action, it's given the opposition further ammunition.
"This is a very substantive and controversial decision the government's made and what they've done is circumvent the democratic process," Mr Hanson said on Thursday.
A bill for voluntary assisted dying laws — which is expected to pass in the Legislative Assembly in some form — is also expected to be introduced later this year.
That's something the Catholic-run Calvary Health Care does not support.
Father Tony Percy, who is now spearheading the church's campaign to stop the takeover of Calvary, said the government's decision was "very ideological".
"It's basically religious bigotry writ large," Father Percy said.
"The community needs to ask itself: who's next?
"Which other community group does the government have in the gun ready to fire?"
But Ms Stephen-Smith insisted the acquisition was about efficiency and not about Calvary being a faith-based service.
"This is about having a private provider — any private provider — delivering our second-largest hospital in a network that only has three hospitals in the ACT," she said.
Canberra's Catholic archdiocese says it's dismayed and disappointed by the ACT government's decision to take over the Catholic-owned Calvary Public Hospital.
The government also disputed Calvary Health Care chief executive Martin Bowles's claim that the organisation was "blindsided" by the announcement.
"The ACT government considers it important that the land for the new northside hospital is held by the ACT government to ensure the new hospital will be an asset owned by the people of the ACT," a government spokesperson said.
"Recognising that an agreed sale of Calvary-owned land would require agreement from the Holy See, the government advised Calvary in April 2022 that it would consider legislating to achieve this outcome if necessary."
The government has not yet confirmed what they would be willing to pay by way of compensation for the acquisition.
Meanwhile, Calvary has also not confirmed whether it will take legal action.
Either way, the government's takeover won't come cheaply.
Posted Fri 12 May 2023 at 9:59pm Friday 12 May 2023 at 9:59pm Fri 12 May 2023 at 9:59pm , updated Sat 13 May 2023 at 3:51am Saturday 13 May 2023 at 3:51am Sat 13 May 2023 at 3:51am
