Catholic healthcare provider Calvary has agreed to buy Hobart Private Hospital, securing the future of the 146-bed facility after months of uncertainty.
The deal, announced on Christmas Eve, comes as receivers continue to carve up hospital operator Healthscope, which collapsed under $1.6 billion in debt earlier this year.
Calvary did not disclose the purchase price.
The acquisition will give Calvary three private hospitals in greater Hobart, adding Hobart Private to its existing Lenah Valley and St John’s campuses.
Calvary national chief executive Damien Bruce said the organisation would work closely with the state government to manage the transition of ownership.
“We recognise the uncertainty experienced by staff and clinicians during this period,” he said.
Bruce said the focus was now on providing “stability, continuity of care and a strong future” for the hospital.
The sale is subject to ACCC approval and other regulatory conditions.
Hobart Private has endured a turbulent year. Healthscope shut the hospital’s maternity ward in August after failing to recruit enough midwives.
The ward had delivered about 500 babies a year.
Calvary stepped in to absorb displaced births, expanding capacity at its Lenah Valley hospital from 350 to 900 births annually.
It also recruited about 80% of midwives who lost their jobs when Hobart Private’s maternity service closed.
Independent federal MP Andrew Wilkie had warned for months that Hobart Private was at risk as Healthscope’s financial troubles deepened.
“We just can’t afford to lose that hospital,” he said in May.
“The Royal, obviously, is in a perilous state all the time and our health system would collapse if we lost the private.”
Calvary said Hobart Private would build on its “commitment to the continuity of care in Tasmania and delivering high-quality, not-for-profit private hospital services”.
The deal is the latest in a series of Healthscope asset sales.
Earlier this week, Ramsay Health Care agreed to buy Canberra’s National Capital Private Hospital for $251 million, while the NSW government paid $190 million to take back Sydney’s North Shore Private Hospital.
Receivers from McGrathNicol have now sold four major Healthscope hospitals.
