Corporate takeover of hospital comes our way

After the announcement by the Liberal govenrment that they would spin work off from hospitals to private clinics, Centric, a corporation with other private facilities in Canada, has now moved in with plans to buy the Shouldice Hospital in Toronto. Shouldice is an 89 bed, five operating room hospital in Toronto with a staff of 160. The sale price is $14,250,000.

Shouldice Hospital

The largest shareholder of Centric is Global Healthcare Investments & Solutions, Inc., based in the USA. Global Healthcare's CEO formerly led one of the world's largest healthcare corporations outside the USA, Netcare.

The Liberal government had said they would turn work over to not-for-profit clinics only. Centric however is a for-profit corporation listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange.

The takeover is still subject to government approvals. Centric notes that if all closing conditions are satisfied, closing is expected on or before October 15, 2012. A Shouldice insider reports that the government has as been kept informed of negotiations and appears likely to give the green light.

If it does go through, this will be the first corporate takeover of a hospital in Ontario.

Shouldice Hospital is a private hospital established in 1945 by Dr. Edward Shouldice in Toronto and the hospital has been family-owned ever since.

Shouldice is unusual as it was grandparented as a private hospital under Ontario’s Private Hospitals Act in 1973 as Ontario moved to public medicine. Only one other private hospital was grandparented at that time and it has since closed.

The Shouldice performs routine hernia operations.

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