Healthscope CEO Tino La Spina echoed the Health Minister, reassuring patients it would be “business as usual” at all 37 hospitals.
“I’m at John Faulkner today,” he said. “For this week we have 8700 patients coming to our facilities. They can expect the same fantastic care from dedicated professionals, nurses, doctors and support staff you would any other day of the week.
“Business as usual.”
Westpac and the Commonwealth Bank have both agreed to contribute funding to allow the facilities to continue operatiing with the CBA stumping up a reported $100 million.
Mr La Spina said the company was “confident” there is interest in a buyer taking over the Healthscope business as a whole.
“We have ten non-binding indicative offers,” he said. “Some are for the whole and others potentially could include the whole under certain circumstances. That is the focus.”
When asked why the businesses couldn’t run effectively, Mr La Spina highlighted three core issues.
“One is there’s too much secured debt and that’s being addressed,” he said. “The other is the rentals that the company are paying are out of the market, too high, that will get addressed as part of this process.
“The third, as widely spoken about, is the industry structure with private health insurers, basically having squirrelled away billions and not putting it back into the private sector.
“That is a fight for another day.”