The 18-bed Victor Harbor Private Hospital (VHPH) will cease operations on April 19, the latest in a series of regional community hospitals in South Australia to close due to financial and other pressures.

VHPH board chairperson Phil Goode said it had become obvious that the hospital did not have a viable future.

He said while it was a sad decision, it was also realistic and by making an “early call” the board would avoid debt and protect its cash reserves.

Only 12 months ago he warned the community and local GPs that they needed to “use or lose” the facility.

“There’s just too much evidence, too many strong headwinds,” he said of the reasons behind the decision.

Mr Goode said the lack of GPs able or willing to admit patients and provide post-operative care contributed to the declining use of the hospital.

He also said it had become increasingly difficult to negotiate contracts with private health insurers, who were unwilling to increase payments in line with inflation.

Ownership passes to SA Health

Mr Goode said the terms of the original lease and health management agreements with the health department suggested that once the private hospital operations were terminated its building legally became the property of the local health network.

Barossa Hills Fleurieu Local Health Network (BHFLHN) interim chief executive Bronwyn Masters said it had been advised the private hospital would cease operations from April 19  and was working to ensure a smooth transition of services.

Ms Masters said the space that the private hospital currently occupied would become part of the co-located 32-bed Southern Fleurieu Health Service public hospital, with people still able to be admitted as private patients in the public hospital.

Currently, the hospitals share staff with the private hospital reimbursing its share of the costs.

Ms Masters said there would be no loss of jobs or hours for existing staff with all to continue to be employed by the Southern Fleurieu Health Service.

The public hospital has already been using up to five of the private hospital’s beds for public patients for more than a year to cope with demand as the local population grows.

Mr Goode said the board had made a moral and ethical decision not to charge SA Health for this usage, allowing the beds to be used for public patients rather than have people turned away from local health services.

Mr Goode said the number of private patients in the hospital had dropped to an average of only six or seven each day since the COVID pandemic.

“COVID was the significant factor for us and when I look back to 2019, when we were providing 6,000 occupied bed days to this community and doing 1,000 surgical procedures, I thought we were providing an incredible service and option to private health cover and that should have been highly thought of – a significant unloading of the public system,” Mr Goode said.

Sixteen of the private hospital’s 18 beds will become general public beds, with the remaining two beds to be converted to renal dialysis units, something Mr Goode said was sorely needed in the community.

“That will provide at least another eight patient treatments on a weekly basis which I think is a very good outcome for the community.”

He said the board would use its cash reserves to provide an ongoing legacy for the good of the community, such as scholarships to attract and retain more GPs and programs to improve paediatric services in the area and support families with sick children.

Need for more planning

Local MP David Basham said while the closure was disappointing, he was pleased that the government had committed to keeping the beds open.

“It [the private hospital] hasn’t been able to maintain itself since the 2015 Transforming Health change, when the local GPs were taken out of the public hospital and were then less available to the private hospital,” he said.

Mr Basham warned that even with the transfer of the beds to the public hospital, the hospital would continue to struggle to keep up with the Fleurieu’s rapidly growing population.

Work on an eight-bed expansion to the hospital’s emergency department intended to be completed by 2023 has not begun.