We deserve better: Healthscope campaign

This is the outcome of a series of poor financial decisions by the previous owners, Brookfield. Instead of investing in the company to ensure it could provide quality patient care for the community in the long-term, Brookfield decided to strip Healthscope of its key assets by selling off the hospitals you work in and entering lease agreements with the new owners. This is a consistent strategy that private equity firms like Brookfield use when ‘investing’ in healthcare – they want to secure short-term gains for their investors

Receivership is a formal process to allow a secured creditor to recover a debt without placing the debtor in liquidation.

The appointed Receiver would investigate Healthscope’s financial position and develop a plan to recover some or all of the debt. This plan could involve selling Healthscope’s assets or the whole business.

This process could result in Healthscope being able to pay its debts, avoid liquidation, and continue trading.

At this stage there are no plans to close hospitals, and the services that you provide are still a vital part of the health system. ANMF is working hard with the federal and state governments to keep hospitals open and ensure your jobs are protected through this period of uncertainty. Current expectations are that Healthscope will continue to operate as normal while its financial affairs are being reorganised.

Hospitals should continue to operate as normal while under receivership and/or administration. Your hospitals are still an integral part of the health system. We know members care deeply about what happens to your patients and we’ll be working with all the stakeholders to make sure the interests of both members and patients are at the heart of any solution.

Employees are not authorised to speak on behalf of Healthscope about its financial situation. You should respond by explaining that you’re not able to comment, but that you’ll continue to work as normal providing patient care. Any questions should be referred to the appropriate people within Healthscope who are authorised to speak on behalf of the company (e.g. Healthscope’s communications team)

Yes, you are still employed by Healthscope. What will change is that the company may be placed under the control of an independent Receiver appointed by the firms that have bought Healthscope’s debt.

Yes. That is one of the possibilities that a Receiver would look at.

Yes. There have been lots of rumours in the media about different groups potentially looking to buy, but none of these are confirmed.

Yes, you should attend your rostered shifts as normal. Healthscope is still your employer, and your work providing care for patients is just as important as ever.

Healthscope is still your employer. They are still operating hospital services, and they still have to pay you.

From what we know at the moment, there is no immediate problem with their cash flow. The Receiver is brought on to ensure that the business can still operate while they look at how to get more credit for Healthscope or to find another buyer or buyers.

Those entitlements are still on Healthscope’s books, and your union will work hard with all levels of government to ensure that your entitlements can be protected.

It’s important for all members to keep good records of what leave and entitlements you have from now on. You can do so by logging on to Dimensions and taking a screenshot of your leave balances.

The ANMF will work with federal and state governments to put in place measures to try to ensure that does not happen. In the worst possible scenario, the Australian government does have a scheme called the Fair Entitlements Guarantee (FEG) that protects employees who lose their job when their employer goes into liquidation or bankruptcy.

Your bargaining team met with Healthscope on 22 May for another bargaining meeting and there are a further two bargaining meetings planned at this stage on 5 and 19 June. At this stage there are no plans to halt the bargaining process, but that will be a decision that is made in consultation with members once we know more about what this week’s events mean.

Negotiations have not been finalised for your new enterprise agreement. As a result, it’s premature to give advice on when back pay will be available. In bargaining, Healthscope have indicated that employees will not entitled to back pay under the new agreement unless they’re still employed when it commences (i.e., after it is voted up by employees and approved by the Fair Work Commission).

Employees last received a pay rise of 2.5% on 1 July 2023, and members are rightly frustrated that they haven’t received much-needed cost of living relief.

Your bargaining team has made multiple requests to Healthscope in bargaining, most recently through a letter to the CEO on 15 May, to provide this relief through an interim increase to pay of 5.5% from 1 July 2024 (which is what Healthscope has proposed in bargaining).

Healthscope has refused on the grounds that to do so would deprive them of their ‘one piece of leverage in negotiations’.

That’s a decision for you based on your personal circumstances. We don’t have all the information but we’re working to get it – to assist you make any decisions you need to. We appreciate this is causing stress and uncertainty. Make sure you attend planned members’ meetings to keep up to date.

This depends on whether Healthscope has the requisite funds to pay out your entitlements. Ultimately, if Healthscope is in receivership, decisions about what money is paid out and to whom will rest with the Receiver. We recommend that you seek clarity on this from your employer before making any decisions about your employment

Working with ANMF, federal and state governments to ensure there is a plan in place to protect members at Healthscope hospitals across the country.

Conversations with all levels of government have been going for some time. This is a possibility that has already been raised with both the federal and NSW government. An urgent meeting of the ANMF Federal Executive was held to put together a plan and coordinate the union response. Come to the scheduled member meetings to hear more about what’s being discussed.

If you are an NSWNMA member, you can access the Immigration Advice and Rights Centre (IARC), a free immigration and visa service. Their lawyers provide expert advice for all types of visas provided to workers in Australia such as student, working holiday and sponsorship visas

We know this is a really difficult time for members. If you’re feeling stressed or anxious and need further support beyond the topics covered here, you can contact Nurses and Midwives Support at www.nmsupport.org.au or 1800 667 877

After Healthscope offered to sell back NBH to the NSW Government in April 2025, NSW Treasury and NSW Health formed a Taskforce to plan for different scenarios whereby the NSW government would need to step in to run the hospital. We know that insolvency is one of the scenarios which would trigger termination of the NBH Project Deed.

As of today, Healthscope is still your employer. However, discussions between NSW Treasury and Health have been going on for some time to prepare for a scenario like this. On 14 May at the NBH Public Forum, the NSW Health Minister said that NSW Health and the NSLHD have been making contingency plans for a possible Healthscope insolvency, and they have operational plans to ensure that they could engage the staff they need to operate NBH, from day one.

At this point, this is not confirmed, and your union leadership is seeking urgent discussions with the NSW Government in light of this week’s developments. This is one of the scenarios under discussion by the NSW Taskforce. When asked about this at the NBH Public Forum, the NSW Treasurer said he had not ruled out either option.

The Treasurer and the NSW Health Minister confirmed that the Taskforce has been looking at the complexity of having NSW Health staff operate public beds in the same building as Healthscope (or another future owner) staff operating the private beds, given the fact that NBH was purpose-built to be an integrated service.

Your union will do everything we can to protect jobs and will advocate strongly with the NSW Government to ensure that nurses and midwives currently at NBH are offered employment with the State public sector.

We have recent experience of supporting members through this process at St John of God Hawkesbury, and we are already in discussions with NSW government about what this should look like.

If NBH goes back into the public sector, we can expect that the terms and conditions of your employment will be as per the Public Health System Nurses’ and Midwives’ (State) Award once the hospital commences operation by the NSW Government.

Effectively, your employment with Healthscope will end and you will receive a new offer of employment from the State public sector.

Generally, employees have their leave entitlements paid out (except for personal leave) or transferred. However, Healthscope’s ability to transfer or pay out leave entitlements will rest on whether they have sufficient funds to do so, and whether the Receiver decides to prioritise your leave entitlements ahead of other creditors.

We may need to campaign to ensure entitlements are transferred in the same way entitlements were transferred when Hawkesbury District Health Service was brought back into public hands in 2024.

The dispute has already been heard by the Fair Work Commission (1 April 2025) and we are waiting to receive a decision from the Commissioner who heard the dispute. It is important to remember that the outcome of that dispute is not yet known, but we will advise members of the outcome once received and we will then discuss any remediation that may apply with Healthscope and their lawyers.

This depends on whether Healthscope has the requisite funds to pay out your entitlements. Ultimately, if Healthscope is in receivership, decisions about what money is paid out and to whom will rest with the Receiver.

In normal circumstances, if you were to get a new job and resign from your employment at Healthscope, you would be entitled to payment of accrued annual leave, ADOs and TOIL (if applicable). Employees who are entitled to long service leave would also have accrued long service leave paid out.

However, this is not guaranteed when an employer is in receivership, and we recommend that you seek clarity on this from your employer before making any decisions about your employment.