The planned compulsory acquisition of Calvary Public Hospital Bruce faces its most significant hurdle with the Supreme Court on Wednesday to consider a push for an injunction.
But a decision may not be reached today. The full bench of the court will hear the application and will need to confer with each other before making a decision.
The controversial acquisition was again a subject of strong debate in the Legislative Assembly on Tuesday.
A peak business body has also aired concerns about the takeover, saying it could pose a "sovereign risk" for business in the territory.
Canberra Business Chamber chairman Archie Tsirimokos said the early termination of legally binding contracts could undermine business and investor confidence in the territory.
"A stable and predictable business environment is crucial for attracting investment. By disregarding any established agreement, the government risks undermining this environment and potentially discouraging future private sector involvement in contracts for infrastructure or other services which may be performed by the private sector," Mr Tsirimokos said.
"This stability provides the basis for businesses of all sizes to work with government without the fear of seeing arrangements change or contracts cancelled."
This came as the opposition probed ACT Health Minister Rachel Stephen-Smith on contracts with PricewaterhouseCoopers during the Assembly's question time.
The firm, which has come under fire for a federal tax breach, has been consulting the government on the government's proposed northside hospital and the acquisition.
Ms Stephen-Smith was asked by opposition health spokeswoman Leanne Castley about whether PwC had notified the territory government about any conflict of interest in relation to the acquisition.
The Health Minister said PwC undertook Calvary's financial audits. Ms Stephen-Smith last month said Calvary national chief executive Martin Bowles had raised concerns two PwC members who were part of the Calvary transition had previously undertaken work for Calvary.
PwC advised there was no conflict but the advisers were removed from the project.
Ms Stephen-Smith said the ACT government was writing a letter, along with ACT Treasury, to PwC to seek assurance the Australian Federal Police investigation into the tax breach scandal would not pose a risk to territory government contracts.
The Health Minister was also asked about repairs on Calvary's fire-damaged theatres, which she last week claimed had been brought to a halt due to the government's legislation bill. Calvary has denied this.
Ms Stephen-Smith said she heard this from multiple staff at Calvary. She did not consult with Calvary over this, saying the organisation did not want to speak with her.
"Calvary had made it clear that they were not particularly interested in hearing from me or my office," she said.
"I want to be clear we didn't just hear this from one person, we heard this from multiple people at various different levels of the organisation.
"If that is incorrect I apologise to Calvary for that."
Ms Castley also moved a motion in the Assembly calling on the government to maintain staffing levels at Calvary following the takeover but the government amended the motion.
"Bizarrely the government said it would maintain the current standard of clinical services but wouldn't guarantee to maintain current staffing levels," Ms Castley said following the debate.
"I fail to see how the government thinks it can maintain clinical standards without maintaining staffing levels."
