The UK Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) is about to dive into the health sector again with Ramsay Health Care today announcing an offer to acquire Spire Healthcare. Only last year, the CMA reviewed Circle’s acquisition of BMI Healthcare. To get the deal through Circle had to sell two hospitals across the three areas where…

In last month’s NHS White Paper and the accompanying consultation paper (the NHS Provider Selection Regime) the Government set out a new framework for the NHS to use when it commissions clinical services from NHS trusts and private providers. Currently, contracting for these services is governed by government-wide rules that apply across the public sector. In future,…

Post-pandemic, several deals have entered the healthcare M&A pipeline. LaingBuisson reports that advisers have appointed to help sell businesses in children’s services (Keys Group, Sandcastle Care and Priory Group), mental health (Huntercombe Group and Priory Group), private hospitals (Aspen Healthcare) and specialist care (Active Care Group). Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) intervention will be a…

Circle’s recent acquisition of BMI Healthcare has been cleared by the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) subject to hospitals being divested in Bath and Birmingham. While most of the CMA’s decision is about competition between private hospitals, its most interesting implications are for GP practice mergers. Centene, a part owner of Circle, owns 18 NHS GP…

Today’s decision by the Competition & Markets Authority (CMA), allowing the NHS hospital trusts in Bournemouth and Poole to merge, is a significant milestone. The CMA has overturned the Competition Commission’s (CC’s) prohibition of this merger, and it may also be the CMA’s last review of an NHS trust merger where the focus is on…