The problems that appear to have dogged the first weeks of the new privately run Northern Beaches Hospital, which Premier Gladys Berejiklian formally opened on Monday, have significance far beyond the suburbs the facility is designed to serve.

The hospital, built and operated by a consortium led by private firm Healthscope under a 20-year, $2.2 billion contract, is the flagship for the NSW government experiment handing to the private sector the delivery of a much wider range of public services from prisons to technical education to health.

The Herald is agnostic about which services should be provided by the public sector directly or by a private contractor but looks at each case on its merits. There will be times where the private sector can add efficiency and new ways of thinking but others where private profits only come at the price of worse services and greater risks.

Gladys Berejiklian at the opening of the Northern Beaches Hospital in Frenchs Forest. Credit:Fairfax Media

Some of the major privatisations carried out since the Coalition came to power such as the sale of the state's electricity network are probably in the former category. The jury is still out on several public transport projects including the construction and operation of the new Sydney metro lines.