Collapsed Australian hospitals group Healthscope has declined to comment on a report that its Chief Executive made an extraordinary outburst about private health funds and vowed to resign if one of them buys the group.
“As you can appreciate we won’t be making any comment on the AFR (Australian Financial Review) story,” a spokesperson told Azzet.
Tino La Spina reportedly also criticised Healthscope’s former private equity owner Brookfield during a private briefing of doctors and other staff, the AFR reported.
The former Qantas executive was quoted by the AFR as saying in a phone call that health insurance giant Bupa would buy the business only “over my dead body”.
“I won’t be part of anything that involves a health insurer coming to own Healthscope. I think that is abhorrent,” La Spina reportedly said on the call.
“The way they have underfunded hospitals and then come in to seek to take advantage, to try to pick it up on the cheap when they have created a situation, or at least contributed to the situation.”
La Spina recognised he would not determine the outcome of the sale process being run by receivers McGrathNicol but a health fund “won’t have me sitting there as their CEO”.
He also said Brookfield, which has handed control of the group’s 37 hospitals to its lenders, left with its “tail between its legs” after having paid A$4.4 billion for the formerly listed group in 2019.
“The one who has lost the most is Brookfield … they’ve gone, but they have gone with no cash. They have probably gone with their tail between their legs a little bit, not feeling great about that,” he said.
Healthscope’s parent companies went into receivership on 26 May with debts of $1.6 billion but the hospitals continue to operate on a business as usual basis.
The CEO also defended Healthscope's performance, saying it should not be compared with competitor Ramsay Healthcare (ASX: RHC) because Ramsay owns its hospitals while Healthscope leases many of its hospitals.
“If you took the capital structure out and compared the two like for like, you will find we are doing better than them,” La Spina said.
