The new chief of Spire Healthcare has pledged to open fewer new private hospitals and look to return more cash to shareholders, after a plunge in profits.
Justin Ash, who took the helm of the troubled FTSE 250 firm in October, said he would also invest millions of pounds in improving care quality in the wake of the Ian Paterson scandal.
A £27m provision for compensating victims of the rogue breast surgeon, along with a previously flagged fall in referrals from the NHS, weighed on the firm’s full-year numbers.
Mr Ash said the firm was putting all expansion plans on hold and would focus on “improving returns in capital” to investors and on growing its ‘self-pay’ treatments business.
Shelved projects include its option on a site for a potential hospital in Milton Keynes, while a development in central London was “off the table”, he said.
Mr Ash said the Paterson case was “terrible” and Spire was “constantly referring to the lessons learned from it”.
“You can’t be too vigilant. We are making sure at every level we have the best care systems and information,” he said.
Article from The Telegraph, 2 March 2018