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Spanish meltdown

The Spanish central government has announced plans to cut health and education spending by €10bn. If the regions do not agree to do this, then the central government will take control of their operations and enforce cuts. Some say that this will lead to the growth of the Alzira model in which a private consortia run a functionally privatised hospital at a saving of around 25% to the state. But there is a deeper problem. As with Greece, there has been systematic corruption. One insider says that no one knows how many people are employed in public sector healthcare in any of the regions. He adds that no one, including the government, has a coherent healthcare strategy.

Europe looks to professionalise procurement

Other European countries as well as Australia and New Zealand are likely to outsource public sector healthcare procurement in a similar way to England where a project run by DHL should save the English NHS between £800m and £1bn in the decade to 2016. Other privately owned procurement players, backed by 10 tonne gorillas like Hospital Corporation of America, are also emerging....

Homecare – where is the growth?

Telehealth seems to be stuck in a rut of pilots, pilots and more pilots. But other homecare sectors - particularly the hospital at home concept - are growing fast....

Greek hospital groups face uncertain future

The Big four Greek private hospital groups face a deeply uncertain future, says Kostas Dimitrakopoulos, who recently moved to advisers Arator Equity Strategy from Kappa Securities. The government is continuing to fail to pay its bills and the private medical sector has shrunk as Greece faces a 6% drop in GDP in 2011 and a similar fall in 2012....

Operating margins fall at Asklepios

Paying more for temp doctors left operating margins down at Asklepios, one of the big three German hospital groups.  First half profits were then clobbered by a €37.5m write off of its stake in Athens Medical Center, one of the big four Greek hospital groups. Net profits fell from €53.7m to just €6.8m. We analyse the figures and look at general prospects for the German sector....

A buyers market

Healthcare services is a buyers market today. Victor Chu at consultant Candesic reckons that around half all companies which try to sell are failing to find a buyer. We look at why and what the future holds....

Interview: Joan Barrubés, partner, Antares Consulting

We talk to Joan Barrubés, a partner director at Antares Consulting, who specialises in private sector healthcare in Spain. Antares is a leading consultant in healthcare in Spain and also has offices in Brussels, Lisbon, Lausanne, Paris and Sao Paolo....

Greek lab reform creates huge opportunities

The Greek government has announced that it will cut lab prices which are currently 4-5 times as high as those in Germany. This should eliminate the 4,500 small labs which live off fat margins. Meanwhile lab outsourcing should soar says Dr Evangelos Spanos, president and CEO of Bioiatriki, the largest lab group....

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