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Measuring quality outcomes: the next frontier for competition?

Private health and care would be transformed if quality could be measured accurately in a way that patients could really understand. If measured, quality would then soar. And the sterile European private versus public debate would fade out as payers focused on quality outcomes and patient choice.

Attendo IPOs and aims to create Europe’s largest elderly care group by 2025

As forecast here, Attendo, the largest Pan-Nordic chain is to IPO on Nasdaq Stockholm, creating a group with a market cap of at least €861m (SEK8bn) at the end of November 2015. Henrik Borelius, CEO of Attendo, told Healthcare Europa that accessing more capital will allow Attendo to strengthen its position in the Nordics. The group aims to become the largest private care home group in Europe by 2025.

Report: Reforming healthcare – trends and trajectories

European countries are undergoing rapid and substantial demographic and technological changes. Yet, healthcare systems are still mainly state-funded and acute-focused, as they have been for the past 70 years. This is starting to change.

France dents Capio organic growth

Pan-European hospital group Capio reckons that productivity gains from shorter hospital stays should enable it to achieve 4% organic sales growth across its operations in Sweden, Norway, Germany and France. But tariff cuts in France and a nasty bout of flu in Germany meant it only hit 2.3% for the third quarter and 2.9% for the first nine months. Capio IPOed in June 2015. Its shares fell SEK1.25 to 53SEK on the news but still trade above the SEK48.5 IPO price.

Liberals and Social Democrats agree to reform Stockholm’s healthcare provision

Stockholm has come up with new healthcare pricing, which will still allow competition and private provision, but ensure better coverage in poor areas. The measure saw social democrats and liberals working together. That is a good sign for a private sector which has faced a nasty ideological rift in recent years.

Unilabs achieves 7% organic growth

Unilabs CEO and company doctor Jos Lamers is cock-a-hoop over second quarter sales growth of 7.1% at constant exchange rates and sees a trend towards the public sector outsourcing. Unilabs, the Pan-West European lab and imaging group, was a late entry in to the race to buy Pan-Euro lab group synlab this summer and Lamers is keen to make more acquistions. We talk to him about the results and how he sees the lab sector.

Swedish nursing home 26% more cost efficient than its public counterpart, says four-year study

Ostersund, a Swedish municipality, commissioned a study assessing two identical care homes, one run by the public sector, the other by a private provider. Results might make the Swedish left-wing coalition rethink their policies aiming to curb private sector profits. Despite both homes receiving the same quality appraisal, the private one is more cost effective.

Norwegian private healthcare sector set to double in size by 2020

Although the regulation restricting private operators changed as far back as in 2000, private players have only started to play a role over the past two years. So why the sudden shift? Tom Tidemann, CEO of Unicare, says 11 years of socialist ‘red-green’ governments hindered the drive for a more commercial approach to healthcare. With a right-wing coalition in office, fair public-private competition can finally emerge.

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