NT plans law requiring maternity services at Darwin Private Hospital
Calvary Health Care is expected to take over by the end of 2026, while an obstetrician warns rebuilding the maternity ward would take at least two years.
The Northern Territory government plans to require Darwin Private Hospital operators to provide maternity services, Chief Minister Lia Finocchiaro said on 15 October, more than a year after the Territory’s only private maternity ward closed.
Finocchiaro said the proposed requirement would cover Calvary Health Care, which is expected to take over before the end of 2026, and any subsequent operator. Services would have to include care from private obstetricians and midwives.
Healthscope closed the ward, citing declining birth rates, and entered receivership last year. Finocchiaro said Calvary had indicated it was willing to provide maternity care.
Jenny Mitchell, who spent 28 years working at the hospital as an obstetrician, welcomed moves to give the service certainty but said restoring the ward would require at least two years.
Mitchell said equipment was gone and the hospital lacked midwives and nursery nurses. Reopening would also require paediatricians and a 24-hour anaesthetist roster.
She identified rising private care and insurance costs as further challenges. Mitchell said there were 380 deliveries in 2024, against 800 or 900 annually when she started at the hospital.
Our Birth, Our Voice organiser Sophia Emberson-Bain welcomed the decision, saying the advocacy group had sought the requirement since Healthscope announced it was dismantling maternity services. The Private Hospital Amendment Bill is expected to be introduced to parliament.
