6 November 2013
The transfer of ownership is anticipated to take place in the first half of 2014.
St John of God Group Chief Executive Officer Dr Michael Stanford said the purchase would allow SJGHC to extend the reach of its services in the rapidly growing Perth metropolitan area and contribute to SJGHC developing an integrated health care delivery system in Perth with benefits for patients, the broader community, students and postgraduate trainees as well as employees and visiting medical consultants.
“Mercy Hospital is an excellent 205-bed hospital with a particularly strong tradition in women’s health,” he said.
“It is our intention to invest in expanding its services and growing obstetrics, medicine and surgery in an integrated way with our existing Perth metropolitan hospitals.
“We also intend to build on Mercy Hospital’s rehabilitation services and develop a significant private specialist rehabilitation service to support patients in private and public acute hospitals.”
MHML’s current rehabilitation services include a 20 bed private unit, the only private specialist rehabilitation unit in Perth, and a 24 bed public patient rehabilitation unit.
MercyCare CEO Chris Hall said that the sale provided staff, doctors and the community at MHML with a long-term secure future under a large-scale hospital operator and health care provider with a similar culture and values, while allowing MercyCare to invest in areas of strategic importance to its ministry.
“This allows MercyCare the opportunity to look at providing a wider range of health care and social services in people’s homes and in their communities, and increasing access to services for people who are without adequate assistance or are marginalised from mainstream,” he said.
The purchase of MHML will bring the number of hospitals run by SJGHC to 14, in addition to the two hospitals at Midland which are presently under construction and will open in November 2015.
From November 2015 SJGHC will have five hospitals in metropolitan Perth totaling 1,520 beds up from 948 beds at present, an increase of more than 60 per cent. SJGHC is one of Western Australia’s top ten biggest non-government employers with more than 5310 staff in WA.
MHML will continue to operate as normal during the regulatory approval process and there will be no change to any patient bookings or other day-to-day operations.