Healthscope Enters Receivership: 37 Hospitals Up for Sale, but Operations Continue

Australia’s second-largest private hospital operator, Healthscope, has entered receivership and plans to sell its entire network of 37 hospitals. Despite financial challenges, the company assures there will be no immediate impact on staff or patient care.

Healthscope, acquired by Canadian private equity firm Brookfield for $5.7 billion in 2019, is burdened with approximately $1.6 billion in debt. Today, the company appointed McGrathNicol as receivers. However, a $100 million funding package from Commonwealth Bank will ensure hospital operations remain uninterrupted during the transition.

Receiver Keith Crawford clarified that the subsidiaries managing Healthscope’s hospitals are unaffected. “Our immediate focus is on working with key stakeholders to maintain hospital services and ensure high standards of patient care,” Crawford said. “We will also work with Healthscope management to access operational funding as we pursue an orderly sale of the hospitals.”

McGrathNicol confirmed the plan to sell all hospitals without closures or redundancies.

The company has also been under public scrutiny following the tragic death of two-year-old Joe Massa at Northern Beaches Hospital, a Healthscope-run private-public partnership. The incident led to a parliamentary inquiry, a police investigation, and prompted the NSW government to end public-private hospital partnerships.

Joe Massa’s mother, Elouise Massa, expressed hope that the receivership could result in positive change. “We witnessed firsthand the devastating impact when profit was put ahead of patient care,” she said. “This is a chance for the NSW government to take Northern Beaches Hospital into public ownership.”