Ramsay Healthcare operates over a global network of medical care that extends across 10 countries, with over eight million admissions/patient visits to its facilities in over 532 locations. In the UK, Ramsay Health has a network of 30 hospitals and 3 neurological units, delivering both private treatment and care under contract to the NHS, plus in December 2021, Ramsay acquired Elysium Healthcare, a UK chain of mental health hospitals. This is Ramsay's first move into the UK mental health area, although it already runs mental health facilities in Australia, Sweden and France. Ramsay Health Care UK employs over 3500 staff.
Ramsay Health Care UK is a subsidiary of Ramsay Healthcare (Australia). It was established 1964 in Australia by Paul J Ramsay.
Last updated: January 2024
Strategy
Through a process of acquisition in its home market Ramsay Health has become Australia’s largest private hospital operator. Acquisitions have included other private hospital groups, with the largest being of Affinity Healthcare in 2005, which increased Ramsay’s hospitals from 35 to 69. Ramsay currently has 72 hospitals in Australia. Ramsay also has a history in Australia of moving into the public hospital sector. In 1994/1995 Ramsay Health Care won bids to privatise two government-owned repatriation hospitals (also known as veterans hospitals) – Hollywood Hospital in Perth and Greenslopes Hospital in Brisbane. This strategy has continued and in 2012 two private/public hospitals were in development.
Ramsay Healthcare’s first foray outside Australia was to Indonesia where it now runs three private hospitals; these were acquired with the acquisition of Affinity Health in 2005. Then in 2007 the company acquired Capio, at the time the fourth largest operator of private hospitals in the UK.
The company’s focus for expansion switched to France in 2010, with the March 2010 acquisition of 57% of the French hospital company Group Proclif SAS, now known as Ramsay Santé. Ramsay’s expansion in France has continued, with the May 2011 acquisition of the Clinique Convert hospital, which Ramsay notes is a first step in expanding the Ramsay Santé business, with plans for further expansion. Ramsay Santé has expanded across mainland Europe and is now the second largest private care provider in Europe, operating specialist clinics and primary care units in approximately 350 locations across five countries, France, Italy, Denmark, Norway and Sweden. Ramsay Health Care owns 52.5% of Ramsay Santé which is listed on the European financial markets’ platform Euronext.
In the UK, Ramsay’s growth had been driven by increasing volumes of NHS patients - in 2019 they accounted for 79% of admissions, up from from 75.5% in 2015. However, since Covid, private patients have become more important, up to 28% of admissions in FY2022, and within this the fastest-growing sector is self-pay patients. The company still treats a high volume of NHS patients, however, and in the company's 2022 annual report it noted that Ramsay UK is expected to benefit from its strong partnership with the NHS, combined with private patient growth, to drive an increase in activity levels. Ramsay works with the UK Government and the NHS for the delivery of additional capacity over the medium to long term to address the expanding public wait list for elective surgery and non-surgical services.
Recent years have been tough for Ramsay in the UK: in June 2018 Ramsay wrote down the value of six sites in the UK by £70m.
In late 2020, Ramsay opened a new £7.5m Beacon Park day surgery hospital in Stourbridge. The site comprises an operating theatre, seven consulting rooms, six day case bays and a physiotherapy suite. Earlier in 2020, the company began work on a new day case facility in Chorley, which was opened in 2021. The company has become increasingly focused on day case activity. In July 2020, the Stourside Hospital in Stourbridge opened.
Ramsay Healthcare UK benefited from the contract at the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic, which allowed the NHS use of its facilities and staff, with payment covering full operating costs (see below).
In early 2021 Ramsay Healthcare began its bid to acquire the UK company Spire Healthcare. However, several of Spire's leading shareholders opposed the takeover, including Fidelity and Toscafund Asset Management, and in June 2021 urged other investors to reject Ramsay's offer of 240p per share that valued the company at around £1 bn. Ramsay was forced to increase its offer to 250p per share or £1.2 bn. The reason for the opposition to the original bid notes Toscafund was that "operating conditions in the private healthcare market [in the UK] are set to be strong for some years to come" and so £1 bn was undervaluing the company. Toscafund also opposed the increased bid, but more investors backed this bid. The board of Spire recommended that the offer be accepted. The bid eventually fell through in July 2021 and Ramsay gave up its attempt to acquire Spire.
In December 2021, however, Ramsay successfully bid to acquire Elysium Healthcare, a UK private chain of mental health hospitals, from owners BC Partners. The acquisition cost Ramsay £775m. This is Ramsay's first move into the UK mental health area, although it already runs mental health facilities in Australia, Sweden and France. The acquisition was completed in January 2022.
Elysium Healthcare is ranked as the third largest private mental health in the UK. The company has a portfolio across mental health care, neurological care, education, children’s services and private patient services. Elysium has 72 sites with around 2,000 beds and 6,000 employees across England and Wales.
Financials
In the UK Ramsay’s business is conducted through Ramsay Health Care Operations UK (01532937). The most recent accounts available from Companies House are for the financial year ending 30 June 2022.
Total revenue for the year stood at almost £546.5 million (2021: £548.5 million) with a loss of £53.8 million (2021: profit £7.2 million). Ramsay reported that demand from private patients continued to grow representing over 28% of total admissions in FY22. Within this self-pay admissions was the fastest growing segment albeit from a low base.
Full accounts are published by the Australian parent company, Ramsay Health Care. Accounts are available for the financial year ending June 2023.
Prior to its takeover by Ramsay, Elysium Healthcare (company no. 04063391) reported revenue for 2021 at £97.2 million, almost exclusively from NHS contracts. The company made a loss of £26.1 million.
Contracts
In March 2020, Ramsay Healthcare was part of the deal with the government for using all its premises and staff for NHS patients during the Covid-19 pandemic. NHS England block-booked almost the entirety of England's private hospital sector’s services, facilities and nearly 20,000 clinical staff for the foreseeable future to help cope with the surge of covid-19 patients. The agreement only covers England and added around 8,000 hospital beds, nearly 1,200 more ventilators, more than 10,000 nurses, 700 doctors and 8,000 other clinical staff. This deal, which means the NHS is paying all operating costs for the hospitals, has been a lifeline for the company, as the lockdown meant that no private work was possible.
In June 2020, a £5 billion deal to extend the March deal to help the NHS clear the backlog of work was agreed by NHS England and the private hospital companies, however this was blocked by the Treasury. The Treasury did not believe the deal represented good value for money and that the evidence was not substantial. The block-contract basis of contracts with private providers continued, however on a rolling-basis, as NHS England prepared a new four-year framework contract for increasing capacity. In November 2020, ContractFinder, the government tendering database, reported that Ramsay was one of 67 suppliers awarded a place on the NHS framework contract NHS Increasing Capacity worth in total £10 billion. The framework runs until November 2024.
In October 2020, the HSJ reported that Ramsay was the recipient of the third largest contract for staff and capacity from NHS England, according to a series of contract award notices, however the time period of 2020 this covered is unclear. The contract with Ramsay amounted to £271.1 million.
These block contracts have been criticised after leaks revealed that the capacity paid for by NHS England at companies, such as Ramsay and Spire, was very under-utilised. HSJ reported that two-thirds of the private sector capacity that was block-purchased by the NHS at a cost of an estimated £400 million a month went unused by the NHS over the summer, despite long waits for operations.
In January 2022, Ramsay Health Care UK became one of ten independent providers which signed a contract to provide extra capacity for the NHS under a three-month deal if Omicron leads to unsustainable levels of hospitalisations or staff absences. The deal, agreed by Sajid Javid, the health secretary, will mean the providers are paid to be on standby, with the NHS ordered to pay the private hospitals up to £270m, even though they may not treat any NHS patients in return. Leaked letters showed that Amanda Pritchard, head of NHS England, raised grave doubts over the contract, which instructed the NHS to pay private hospitals £75m to £90m a month from NHS England funds for the next three months. The deal could mean the NHS has to pay independent hospitals up to £525m if they did end up treating any NHS patients.
The agreement also includes Practice Plus Group, Nuffield Health, Circle Health Group, Spire Healthcare, Healthcare Management Trust, One Healthcare, Horder Healthcare, Aspen Healthcare and KIMS Hospital.
According to the HSJ, of all the private providers delivering publicly-funded work, Ramsay is the most dependent on NHS outsourcing and the choose-and-book system.
Ramsay Healthcare performs surgery at nearly all of its hospitals and clinics for the NHS.
Elysium Healthcare
Ramsay's newly acquired mental health division, Elysium Healthcare, treats numerous NHS patients under contract.
Dorset Spinal Surgery Service
In August 2017, Ramsay was awarded a seven year contract for spinal surgery in Dorset, worth £30,800,000.
Concerns
Elysium Healthcare
There are serious questions over the quality of care for patients at Elysium's hospitals. Over the past two years, inquests held on three deaths at Elysium Healthcare hospitals found failings by staff at the clinics. In July 2021, an inquest jury in Milton Keynes found that serious failures of risk assessment, communication, and the setting of observation levels contributed to the death of 19-year-old Brooke Martin in 2019. Brooke, who had diagnoses of autism and emotionally unstable personality disorder, was detained under the Mental Health Act at Chadwick Lodge Hospital, a facility owned by Elysium Healthcare.
In November 2021, inquests held just seven days apart heard how Nadia Shah, 16, and 19-year-old Leon Tasi were found with ligatures round their neck at clinics run by the company. In both cases juries were told inadequate checks had been made on the pair. An inquest jury ruled that Nadia had been failed by the clinic. A “chaotic” scene then led to a delay in Nadia receiving basic life support. At Leon’s inquest, a coroner was told staff gave him back his belt – which he then used to hang himself. He had been detained under the mental health act. Staff had failed to carry out an hourly visual check to see that he was safe, the inquest was told.
In August 2023, adolescent mental healthcare services at the company's Hillview Hospital in Ebbw Vale, Blaenau Gwent, were suspended after there were several reports of concerns at the hospital, including about recording of patient restraints.
Ramsay Healthcare
In October 2017, Ramsay was fined £550,000 at Southwark Crown Court following a prosecution by the HSE. The HSE was alerted by a whistleblower in 2014 to deficiencies in the company's occupational health team and it subsequently found a string of problems, including failing to risk assess hazardous substances, including carcinogenic chemotherapy drugs, and failing to provide workers with adequate health surveillance.
In March 2011 Jill Watts CEO of Ramsay Health UK was called to give evidence before the Public Accounts Committee. Although Watts was at first evasive on the issue of failure, eventually she admitted that should a business be failing then the company would close it. When questioned on what would then happen to the patients she noted that that would depend “on what the marketplace is”.
In 2007, Ramsay Health agreed a 10-year deal with Bromley Hospitals Trust (now South London Hospitals Trust) for the Princess Royal University Hospital in Orpington to build a £4.2 million, 25-bed unit, which the trust would then rent to Ramsay Health UK for £500,000 a year. But in June 2009, just two years into the contract, Ramsay closed the unit saying it was no longer commercially viable. This has left the already deeply in debt South London Hospitals Trust having to pay back eight years rent that was paid upfront by Ramsay Health, and with no money to pay the running costs of the unit without impacting on its budget or to offset the £4.2 million the unit cost to build.
