Healthscope facing staff exodus

In recent months it is understood some key senior staff members have exited the country’s second largest private hospital operator.

As negotiations continue to play out between Healthscope and its lenders, lawyers, landlords and other stakeholders, a more pressing issue could be staring it in the face – job losses.

DataRoom understands that, in recent months, some key senior staff members have exited the country’s second largest private hospital operator, buckling under $1.6bn of debt.

At the same time, the Brookfield-owned Healthscope is understood to have called on some expert advice from US executives, which may have ruffled a few feathers internally,

The challenge whenever a group is in restructuring mode is always rallying the troops and preventing key people leaving and, in this case, it’s the doctors.

Brookfield’s move to split out its strongly performing Norwest Private Hospital in Sydney and the Gold Coast Private Hospital has been to the disapproval of its lenders.

While it believes it has the legal right to do so, the argument against is that Healthscope directors have the legal obligation to only sign off on what is in the best interests of the company.

It’s a situation not expected to be resolved any time soon and one likely to prove to involve a lot of lawyers.

Brookfield bought Healthscope in 2019 for $4.4bn beating BGH Capital in a bidding war for the then listed business.

Sources say Brookfield is taking a particularly aggressive stance and has put a number of the 25-odd Healthscope lenders off-side.

A Healthscope spokesman said Healthscope’s executive leadership team has been unchanged for over a year, and staff turnover was lower this year than last year.