The NT’s last remaining private obstetrician has announced she will shut her practice following the closure of the territory’s only private maternity hospital ward last year.

Darwin Private Hospital closed its maternity ward in June 2025 amid struggles to recruit experienced doctors and declining birth numbers.

The NT Government responded by arranging postnatal care at an airport hotel or at home for women with private maternity cover who gave birth at the Royal Darwin Hospital’s public facilities.

It signed a $1.1 million contract to set up a private midwifery service, before the Nursing and Midwifery Board of Australia put conditions on the midwife who had signed the contract, stopping her from practising without supervision and throwing the plan into doubt.