Danes squeezed
publication date: Feb 1, 2010
The Danish private healthcare sector has been badly squeezed by the way patients choice has been reintroduced in July 2009. Aleris, the Scandinavian private healthcare operator backed by private equity house EQT, has actually closed one of its five clinics.
Patient choice allows any patient to go private after a month if they have not been seen by someone in the public sector. The right was reintroduced in July, but Fredrik Jarrsten at Aleris says the reintroduction was flawed. “Under the new system there are special units who are supposed to inform patients of their rights and to give them the option of going private, but some authorities did not introduce them properly.”
He says that the result has been disastrous for some Danish private healthcare operators. “The reintroduction was in July, so, through the summer, the workload remained low of course. But it then didn’t really pick up in the autumn.” He says a number of operators in the fragmented Danish private healthcare market have been hit by the changes.
Aleris has closed one of its small 3,000 square metre clinics which handle day surgery with some overnight stays as a result. Meanwhile, Aleris plans to enter the Norwegian imaging market.
