One of the Hunter's major hospitals has been non-fire compliant for years, and a whistleblower says "in the event of a fire, you wouldn't get out".
Seven of the 10 buildings at the Calvary Mater Newcastle have not lodged an independently verified fire certificate - known as an Annual Fire Safety Statement (AFSS) and required every 12 months - for two to four years.
Newcastle council discovered the issue in October 2025, but was only able to issue a notice of intention in July 2026 because of complexities in identifying who was the correct recipient under the hospital's opaque public-private partnership (PPP).
It's the latest scandal to hit the hospital that has been the focus of a NSW parliamentary inquiry investigating a deadly mould outbreak in its cancer wards, maggots falling from the ceiling on to patients, chronic mismanagement and allegations of corruption.
Former Mater assets and infrastructure project manager and whistleblower Luke Carroll told the parliamentary inquiry there had been "bandaid after bandaid applied" to conceal the risk at the facility and "in the event of a fire, you wouldn't get out".
"To give you an indication, I personally had to fix deficient fire systems because I was so concerned about the safety of the building," Mr Carroll said.
"These are simple but critical faults that have been left for years and years."
The Newcastle Herald asked NSW Health when was the last time the hospital was issued with a valid AFSS. It was unable to provide an answer, but said under the PPP Novacare was responsible for fire protection systems and fire safety compliance.
"NSW Health recently sought further information from Novacare and is working to resolve this matter," a spokesperson said.
NSW Shadow Health Minister Sarah Mitchell said the Calvary Mater had been "consistently failed by [Premier] Chris Minns and his government".
"It's extraordinary that NSW Health can't say when the hospital last had a valid Annual Fire Safety Statement," Ms Mitchell said.
"Annual Fire Safety Statements exist for a reason - to give patients, staff, and the community confidence that a hospital meets its safety standards.
"The Health Minister [Ryan Park] needs to urgently answer this question, confirm the hospital is fire-safe, and explain how oversight of the Calvary Mater PPP has broken down so badly under his watch."
Mater inquiry chair and Greens politician Amanda Cohn said the latest iteration of safety issues at the Calvary Mater were "distressing, but not surprising" and were a direct result of the PPP model, which "isn't serving the Newcastle community, nor any others".
"Profit-driven businesses and the NSW government have been passing the buck on who should fix what at the Mater for over a decade," Dr Cohn said.
"Whether it's the fire safety compliance, or the mould in the HVAC - these issues won't be meaningfully rectified, and staff and public trust won't be restored, until the hospital is brought back into public ownership and management."
The AFSS is a legally required certificate that confirms an accredited fire safety practitioner has assessed a building's essential fire safety measures by inspecting and testing them to ensure they can perform in the event of an emergency.
"City of Newcastle has been attempting to work with the Health Administration Corporation for some time regarding fire safety compliance for the Calvary Mater Hospital site to ensure its buildings meet the required standards," a Newcastle council spokesperson said.
Concerns around fire safety at the hospital have been raised as far back as May 2022, when the independent consultant Covaris found fire doors throughout the hospital were non compliant, while evacuation diagrams were out of date and when fixed were incorrect in room and corridor layout.
At the time Honeywell, the $110-billion company subcontracted by Novacare to look after the hospital's maintenance, advised Covaris that "the hospital is compliant but not yet supplied verification".
The report also flagged the hospital's smoke dampers - which are located in the vents and close automatically when smoke is detected to prevent its spread - had not been inspected since 2009, and a hole had to be cut into the ceiling, as there was no other way to access them.
"There is also concern that the hospital does not have the requisite information as to where all its fire dampers and smoke dampers have been installed," the Covaris report stated.
In May, Novacare's offer to sell its Mater contract back to the NSW government for $2, which was rejected due to "the potentially tens or hundreds of millions of dollars of liabilities and risk that would also be transferred to the state".
In June, the Herald revealed Novacare had dodged $177 million in financial penalties over alleged failures at the Calvary Mater Newcastle hospital.
