On private health companies like Healthscope, Albanese says:

I am concerned about the private hospital sector right now which is why asked the secretary of the department to convene a group of CEOs not just of key hospitals but of their funders and the private health insurers, patient groups and clinicians.

There are some structural issues in the sector more broadly. We have put some quite concrete suggestions about ways to improve that viability and that group is continuing to do its work. Healthscope, the second biggest private provider of hospitals has obviously very publicly had a whole range of issues that they are working through with their lenders and landlords. We are watching that closely.

Ultimately it is a commercial matter between the three parties that we are watching very closely.

We are keen to ensure that we are on top of any strategic fit to the system. For example, in Tasmania we have provided additional money to cover maternity services that Healthscope has closed, which has some relationship to its viability issues.

We work constructively with the Tasmanian government to ensure there is no interruption to maternity services for Tasmanian families and we continue to monitor the situation closely. I’m not going to provide a day-to-day commentary over the ins and outs of these commercial negotiations that are taking place between Healthscope and its lenders and landlords.