News / Health
‘Business as usual’ at hospital as owner faces financial problems
Receivers for the parent company of John Fawkner hospital expect to sell it as a going concern
Brunswick Voice
THE only 24 hour medical emergency department in Brunswick and Coburg will continue operating as normal after the owner of the John Fawkner Private Hospital was placed in receivership this week.
Patients and staff at dozens of hospitals across Australia have been assured it’s business as usual as a lifeline from banks props up embattled private operator Healthscope.
Healthscope chief executive Tino La Spina on Monday vowed to the company’s 19,000 staff that all its hospitals would remain open and there would be no redundancies.
Healthscope which operates 37 hospitals in every state and territory including John Fawkner on Moreland Road, was handed a lifeline on Monday when the Commonwealth Bank provided a $100 million loan to support the embattled company. Westpac agreed to continue to provide assistance to help receivers sell the business.
Receivers were appointed, led by McGrathNicol partner Keith Crawford who said the focus was to engage “constructively with all key stakeholders to ensure uninterrupted operation of Healthscope hospitals”.
The company is Australia’s second-largest private hospital operator and has been owned by North American private equity firm Brookfield since 2019.
Healthscope said while the parent entity had entered receivership, the operational business – which runs the hospitals – had not.
La Spina said he was confident the business would be sold as a whole, rather than offloading individual hospitals.
John Fawkner Private is part of a nationwide portfolio of hospitals owned by Healthscope.
Originally called Sacred Heart Hospital, it has operated on the same site since 1939.
Following an extensive redevelopment which was finished in 2019, it is a fully-accredited 186 bed major acute medical and surgical hospital, including a 24 hour emergency department supported by a five bed intensive care unit, 12 bed critical care complex and 24 hour on-site medical cover.
La Spina flagged the company’s excessive secured debt and high rental costs of hospital sites as factors in receivers being called in.
Federal Health Minister Mark Butler said the move was no surprise and made clear taxpayers would not be footing the bill for the healthcare provider.
“I want to be clear I expect to see an orderly sale process eventuate from this decision to any owner with no impact on patients and hardworking staff,” he said.
Patients with scheduled births or surgeries at the company’s hospitals should feel confident their procedures would go ahead as planned, Butler said.
He said the company had enough funds for “several months of operations” while the sale process begins.
— with AAP
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