Calvary Health Care has been designated the new operator of Healthscope as part of a national arrangement that will see it take over Darwin Private Hospital as well as others across the country, but the CLP Government cannot say when private maternity services will return to Darwin.

Chief Minister Lia Finocchiaro, who is on leave, issued a statement to say Calvary would bring long-term stability and boost private healthcare services but was vague on when maternity services would return, while the Opposition said the public need to know when they can expect the services to return.

“I welcome Calvary’s commitment to restore maternity alongside other important services at Darwin Private Hospital,” Ms Finocchiaro said in the statement.

She added her government would “continue working with Calvary, clinicians, hospital staff and other stakeholders to support a smooth transition”.

Labor Opposition Health spokesman Chansey Paech said the “big announcement” of Calvary taking over private medical services was missing the details Territorians need.

“Territorians are being told the CLP Government will now ‘work’ with Calvary on a pathway to restore the service. Families have heard ‘we will work on it’ for long enough,” he said.

“If private maternity was truly a condition of appointing a new provider, that should have been made clear today.

“Territory mums have already lost this service once, they should not be left reading between the lines to work out whether it is actually coming back.”

Health Steve Edgington could not provide those answers, saying on Monday that “very positive discussions” were ongoing with Calvary and that the government has “made it clear that if they were the successful bidder, that they would restore maternity services in Darwin”.

He added the national arrangement between Healthscope lenders and Calvary “should be [completed] around November”.

“We’ll need to work on a time frame to restore maternity services after that process is complete,” he told Mix FM.

We need to make sure that the space previously used by HealthScope at the private hospital is there and available, and we’ll work with Calvary to ensure that we can get maternity services back on as soon as possible.

“Our expectation is that all of those other services delivered through the Darwin Private Hospital will continue as is as business as usual.”

The Calvary Health Care-led consortium acquired the long-time operator of the former Darwin Private Hospital, Healthscope, after its financial collapse and entry into receivership in May last year. Private maternity services were terminated the following month.

Healthscope had accrued over $1.6 billion in debt owed to 25 lenders.

The takeover followed a vote on the proposal from the Calvery-led consortium, which also includes Pacific Equity Partners, Acurio Health, and KnG Group. The Calvary deal was preferred over a “PurposeCo” option that would have kept Healthscope under lenders’ control as a not-for-profit.

The Calvary-led consortium will acquire 25 Healthscope hospitals, with Calvary managing 14 of them, including Darwin Private Hospital. The transaction is expected to be finalised by November 30.

The consortium will assume responsibility for Healthscope’s central corporate and head office functions and facilitate the transition of individual hospitals to new operators once the sales process is finalised.

“This transition has brought together a group of organisations with different histories, strengths and approaches, united by a shared commitment to ensuring these services continue to provide high-quality care for the communities that rely on them,” Calvary Health Care chief executive Damien Bruce told The Australian.

Calvary is a not-for-profit Catholic health care organisation that provides residential care, community care and hospital services.