First day of Canberra Health Services transition after Calvary Public Bruce takeover

Driving onto Mary Potter Circuit, big blue letters spelling out "Calvary" remain.

The name has been taken off but not erased from the main hospital building, Xavier, with the word still spelt out in faded black.

Before Calvary left, it took its crucifix and moved a statue of Virgin Mary with baby Jesus, leaving a tile-shaped hole out the front.

All throughout the hospital, Calvary has tried to remove its name by covering it with masking tape.

Next to the catering kitchen, workers collect their non-branded uniforms and scrubs from a man called Kevin. The nylon-looking tops are grabbed from pilled up cardboard boxes, sizes written in marker on the flaps.

A whiteboard covered in first names comes with instructions to "Please only take your own name badge!

"Names badges being delivered in batches. More to be delivered each day!!"

There are two Joannes and multiple Lisas.

Old Calvary uniforms stuffed into plastic supermarket bags are put into black bins, which will be for Calvary Care to re-use or recycle.

A table with Northside Hospital transition team branding, complete with a dark blue tablecloth, is being manned by government represents. Healthcare workers can ask questions, or take a Tim Tam.

Above the table, Kevin has written his daily joke on butcher's paper: What did the nut say when chasing the other nut? (I'm gonna cashew).

Calvary held a barbeque for staff and families on Saturday, and on Sunday ordered cranes to remove the giant cross from the main building.

They didn't seem to inform Archbishop Christopher Prowse, who called the ACT government "totalitarian" over the act.

"The very first thing a totalitarian government does when it seizes Christian assets - the very first thing, they all do it - they take down the crucifix," he said in a homily, seemingly not realising it was the Catholic-run organisation who had arranged the removal.

Sunday was a "pretty wrenching day for all of us", the new general manager of North Canberra Hospital Dr Elaine Pretorius said.

"There was sadness yesterday," the doctor, who was previously Calvary Public's executive director of medical services, said on Monday.

The government has said staff wanted the statue of Mary to remain. It now lives at Calvary Private.

"Everybody responded the same way, in it's been quite a striking sight, especially yesterday when the cross came off. And I think we all felt a sense of sadness and a bit of loss," Dr Pretorius said.

"But today, there's a little bit of a sense of excitement. There's a thank goodness it's happened.

"There's a little bit of relief. You know what it's like when you're preparing for an exam and it's finally here, I think that's a similar feeling."

The main "exam" for Canberra Health Services was the transition of internet technology (IT) systems, which Dr Pretorius said happened smoothly on Sunday night.

It has only been five weeks since Health Minister Rachel Stephen-Smith announced the government would be compulsorily acquiring the public hospital run by Calvary Care, after negotiations over the Northside hospital broke down.

"This has been a huge job of work to get to this point," she said on Monday.

"The transition is not complete by any stretch of the imagination but the critical tasks that needed to be done by the third of July ... were completed thanks to the really hard work of a lot of people."

While the government estimated Calvary employed around 1800 people, 1781 staff members and the entire executive team have moved over to Canberra Health Services, the minister said.

Clare Holland House, a publicly funded palliative care home, has also be moved to Canberra Health Services management. Only a "small handful" of staff did not move over, Ms Stephen-Smith said.

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Signs to the hospital will eventually be changed to prevent confusion for patients, as Calvary still runs private services on the Bruce site, but it is not a top priority, the minister said.

Other items on the government's list include continuing to repair operating theatres which were devastated by a fire in December last year, and looking over Calvary's accounting records.

But in the meantime, there are batches of name badges and uniforms to hand out. Plus, Kevin needs to write a punny joke on butcher's paper.

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