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Speaker 1: Last we've been discussing over the last couple of days.

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Speaker 1: The concerns around Healthscope remain in place. Health Scope indeed

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Speaker 1: announcing that they're going to continue operating and there will

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Speaker 1: be no impact on hospitals staff or patients. We do

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Speaker 1: know though, that Healthscope's parent entities have entered into receivership

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Speaker 1: with its lending appointing McNicol McGrath Nikola should say restructuring

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Speaker 1: to work with Healthscope management to complete an orderly sale

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Speaker 1: of the business. They're saying the operational business which runs

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Speaker 1: the hospitals is not in receivership. However, we know the

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Speaker 1: group has thirty seven hospitals. One of those is the

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Speaker 1: Darwin Private. Now joining us on the line from the

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Speaker 1: Australian Nursing and Midwiffrey Federation's Northern Territory Secretary Cath Hatcha,

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Speaker 1: Good morning to you.

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Speaker 2: Cath, Good morning Katie and good morning listener. Kath.

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Speaker 1: What was your reaction when you had learned, well, we

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Speaker 1: officially learned, I guess what had happened with health Scope yesterday.

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Speaker 2: In a way, I wasn't surprised because we knew that

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Speaker 2: the company from Canada was in financial strife, and they'd

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Speaker 2: already been closing maternity services here in Hobart, so it

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Speaker 2: wasn't a complete surprise.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, that was the feeling that I got, all the

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Speaker 1: sense that I got. We'd sort of been told yesterday

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Speaker 1: morning and had spoken about it on air yesterday morning

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Speaker 1: that health professionals could see this coming or knew that

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Speaker 1: it was coming. Nonetheless, Kat, people must be feeling quite

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Speaker 1: concerned at the moment. How are our nurses and midwives

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Speaker 1: taking the news?

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Speaker 2: The ones that are working in the maternity unit here

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Speaker 2: at GPH felt like they've had a double whammy and

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Speaker 2: they've been told in February the unit's going to close,

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Speaker 2: and now you know there's the They say that the

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Speaker 2: hospital is not going to close, but you know there's

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Speaker 2: always that risk of perhaps the Darwin Private Hospital might

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Speaker 2: close and all of their other colleagues through the rest

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Speaker 2: of the hospital could lose their job as well. Yeah.

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Speaker 1: Well, and Kath, we know that more than six thousand

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Speaker 1: nurses and midwives alone are employed by health Scope across

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Speaker 1: the country. How many do we have here in the

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Speaker 1: NT do you know we're at the Darwin Private Hospital.

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Speaker 2: We have one hundred and twenty four members but we

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Speaker 2: wouldn't capture the whole hospitals nursing and midwifree workforce, so

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Speaker 2: you probably add another thirty percent on top of that

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Speaker 2: and it'd be about the right number.

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Speaker 1: And in terms of you know, the impact that this

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Speaker 1: is having at the moment, have you already had nurses

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Speaker 1: in contact with you from the Darwin Private Hospital who

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Speaker 1: are worried about what it's all going to Maine.

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Speaker 2: After it was announced, Like you said, I heard yesterday

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Speaker 2: morning as well that there was going to be an

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Speaker 2: announcement yesterday afternoon, so I had already prepared an FAQ

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Speaker 2: so frequently asked questions about three pages worth and also

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Speaker 2: put an email together and waited for the announcement to

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Speaker 2: happen and then sent that to our members at the

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Speaker 2: Darwin Private And so far we haven't had any touch

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Speaker 2: base from except just the maternity unit that we're already

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Speaker 2: dealing with, and they felt, you know, sickening that one

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Speaker 2: they're losing their job at maternity unit, but felt that

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Speaker 2: it's disgraceful and disgusting what's already happening to the other

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Speaker 2: hospitals around Australia with Hellscope.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, CAAs, how are things progressing for our nurses and

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Speaker 1: my wives from that maternity unit. I know that you

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Speaker 1: know that we continually sort of get messages coming through

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Speaker 1: wondering if the redundancy has been sorted for those nurses.

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Speaker 1: What's the go at the moment.

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Speaker 2: Out of the fourteen permanent members that we have there,

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Speaker 2: oh sorry, staff that are there, they've had two only

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Speaker 2: so far that have had redundancy packages. The rest we

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Speaker 2: have said to divide their time. Don't approach any other

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Speaker 2: employer to receive a contract until after the sixth of June,

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Speaker 2: and we'll just have to wait and watch see what

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Speaker 2: the employer is going to come up with and whether

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Speaker 2: we need to take their cases to the Fair Work Commission.

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Speaker 1: Look, I do hope today I looked after and that

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Speaker 1: you know that the right thing happens here, Kath in

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Speaker 1: terms of the situation with health Scope more broadly at

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Speaker 1: the Darwen Private Hospital. I mean we were speaking to

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Speaker 1: the Australian Medical Association doctor John Zorbis a little bit

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Speaker 1: earlier this morning. You know, what do you think needs

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Speaker 1: to happen on both the Northern Territory and also a

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Speaker 1: federal stage in terms of you know, ensuring or doing

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Speaker 1: their best to try and ensure that things don't change

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Speaker 1: when it comes to the Darwen Private Hospital continuing to operate,

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Speaker 1: because I would imagine that it would have a big

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Speaker 1: impact if it collapses on the private sorry on the

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Speaker 1: public system as well.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, it would have a huge impact on Royal Dalen

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Speaker 2: Hospital if it did close or some of the facilities

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Speaker 2: needed to close. We have a unique issue here in

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Speaker 2: DPH where Healthcope don't own the building. They sold that

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Speaker 2: off about six years ago and they built the mental

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Speaker 2: health facility at Darwin Private Hospital and so they're renting

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Speaker 2: their building back from the Northwest Healthcare Real Estate Trust. Yes,

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Speaker 2: so that's not the case for all of the buildings

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Speaker 2: around Australia. I'm led to believe that the land here

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Speaker 2: at where dah And Private sits on is owned by

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Speaker 2: Health Goat. But I don't know how that can happen,

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Speaker 2: that they can buy the building or sell the building

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Speaker 2: and still own the land. But that's what I've been

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Speaker 2: told by a very reliable source who used to work

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Speaker 2: at dah And Private Hospital and they were a few

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Speaker 2: years ago. I don't know what they're paying now that

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Speaker 2: they were paying two million dollars a year in Rent.

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Speaker 2: Now that's not the case around the rest. I was

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Speaker 2: led to believe by the National Secretary of the A

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Speaker 2: and MS yesterday that other hospitals of health Scope are

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Speaker 2: owned by health Scope, but some might sit on government

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Speaker 2: land and all their own land, so everyone is a

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Speaker 2: bit different. They're hoping that a buyer might come along

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Speaker 2: and buy the whole thirty seven hospitals, or worst case scenario,

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Speaker 2: a few companies come along and buy all of them,

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Speaker 2: but not all of them together, so individually they might

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Speaker 2: buy ten, fifteen and then so on to the other companies.

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Speaker 2: I hope that well, they're saying at the moment that

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Speaker 2: none of the hospitals are going to close, so I

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Speaker 2: hope they're true to their word with that with the

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Speaker 2: Healthscope CEO. But you know they as we know with

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Speaker 2: the unit here, they said for six months prior to

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Speaker 2: the announcement of closing of the maternity unit that they

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Speaker 2: weren't closing, but in fact they knew that they were

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Speaker 2: going to. So can we trust them, I don't think so.

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Speaker 2: They are private enterprise, that there are nons you know,

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Speaker 2: they're there for profit. There's only six out of the

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Speaker 2: thirty seven hospitals around Australia that do make a profit.

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Speaker 2: The other thirty one are not making a profit. And

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Speaker 2: apparently dah And Private Hospital is making a profit, so

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Speaker 2: why would they want to close the maternity services here

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Speaker 2: at dah In Private. That really made me angry, and

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Speaker 2: the ones that we have spoken to in the last

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Speaker 2: twenty four hours they're angry too. So yeah, we'll just

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Speaker 2: have to watch this space Katie.

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Speaker 1: We are going to have to all be watching it

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Speaker 1: very closely. Kaz I always appreciate your time. Thank you

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Speaker 1: very much for having a chat with us this morning.

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Speaker 2: You're very welcome.

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Speaker 1: Thank you