A suite of new private facilities has officially been opened at Joondalup Health Campus.
While ministers welcomed the addition of new beds and surgical facilities, concerns were raised about the future of private maternity services at the hospital following the departure of two obstetricians.
Federal Health Minister Mark Butler was in Perth to attend the opening of the $166 million upgrades alongside Premier Roger Cook on February 18.
The work has boosted medical bed numbers by 30, while another 22 surgical beds have been added in addition to six operating suites, including two which are shared public/private, two day procedure suites, a day surgery admissions unit, and expanded back of house facilities.
The upgrades also provide scope for another 30 beds – referred to as ‘shell beds’ to be fitted out and brought online in the future.
However, the opening of the new facilities comes as news that two obstetricians are departing from the hospital’s private maternity services this year.
Dr Kim Jones is understood to have moved her services to St John of God (SJOG) Hospital Subiaco, while Dr Nicola English confirmed to Medical Forum she would be finishing within Joondalup when her current cohort of patients had delivered their babies at the end of July 2026 and would begin with SJOG Subiaco in April 2026.
Associate Professor Viny Rane who is the Federal Secretary of the National Association of Specialist Obstetricians and Gynaecologists and a Councillor within the Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists said the decision to leave a private maternity service was not one that anyone would take lightly.
The obstetrician said the loss of two high profile obstetricians from a private maternity service the size of Joondalup’s could have a substantial impact.
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“The material viability of two obstetricians leaving a service that size could potentially have a much greater effect and much greater fall out than just the two of them,” he said.
Professor Rane said private maternity services across Australia were already facing increased financial pressures as a result of fragmented funding models and rising operating costs.
“The financial mathematics of maternity care are completely unforgiving, in order to break even, a maternity service like that would have to deliver about 700 births a year,” he said.
The state’s private maternity services have been under increasing pressure in recent years, with some units closing and others losing staff.
The AMA (WA) has previously spoken to Medical Forum about increasing financial pressure on private hospitals, raising concerns that obstetrics was among the specialities becoming “increasingly unviable” in system.
A spokesperson from Ramsay Health Care told Medical Forum new obstetricians would soon be taking up roles at the Campus.
“We are committed to continuing to provide high quality private maternity services for the local community in Joondalup and surrounding areas,” they said.
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