Caring for Profit
Profile
Violations
Click here for individual Violation Tracker profiles of companies related to the 'Caring for Profit' Project.
Stories
- Crazy dough but for whom? pandemic magic money by Olivier Petitjean and Maxime Combes (2022)
- Shame! The nursing home scandal by Manuel Rico (2021)
- Lobbying for private healthcare: the Spanish case by Audita Sanidad, the Citizen Healthcare Debt Audit work group) on behalf of the ENCO network (2021)
- They Don't Care - How Financial Investors Extract Profits from Care Homes: A Study on Private Equity Investments in Care Homes in France, Germany and the UK by Théo Bourgeron, Caroline Metz and Marcus Wolf (2021)
- Privatization of hospitals: Get out of the "uniform cement desert of collectivism"! by Krankenhaus Statt Fabrik (2021)
- For-Profit Hospitals Have Thrived Because of Generous Public Reimbursement Schemes, Not Greater Efficiency: A Multi-Country Case Study by Patrick P. T. Jeurissen, Florien M. Kruse, Reinhard Busse, David U. Himmelstein, Elias Mossialos and Steffie Woolhandler (2021)
- When the market becomes deadly: How pressure towards privatisation of health and long-term care put Europe on a poor footing for a pandemic by Corporate Europe Observatory (2021)
- Privatising our future: an overview of privatisation, marketisation and commercialisation of social services in Europe by Jane Lethbridge/European Public Service Union (2021)
- Our Health, Their Profit? Case Studies on Union Busting by Healthcare Corporations and Trade Union Resistance by Lucy Redler/Rosa Luxemburg Foundation (2021)
- The Crisis in Care: The urgent need for responsible investor action in nursing homes by UNI Global Union (2020)
- Fully Privatized: The Healthcare System in Germany before Covid-19 by Forum Umwelt & Entwicklung (2020)
- Silver economy: Over 65s: The new target by Juan Carlos Alcaide (2020)
- Fighting the actors of financialization and prohibiting profit on illegitimate private and public debt by CADTM, Collectif, Virginie de Romanet, Renaud Vivien, PAH, Antonio Gambini, ACiDe, Vicente Losada, Eva Betavatzi, Gilles Grégoire, Spanish Platform against vulture funds, Mats Lucia Bayer, Walter Actis, Ángel del Castillo, Mari Ángeles Bueno, Roberto Moreno, Miguel Vázquez, Pedro Martin Heras (2020)
- The Privatization of Care: The Case of Nursing Homes by Pat Armstrong, Hugh Armstrong (2020)
- The privatisation and financialisation of social care in the UK by Kate Bayliss and Jasmine Gideon (2020)
- Pounds for Patients? How private hospitals use financial incentives to win the business of medical consultants by The Centre for Health and the Public Interest (CHPI) (2019)
- ADSE - IP: An achievement of workers that must remain public and solidary by European Public Service Union (2019)
- Facts and Arguments: Criticism of Privatization Ideology by Krankenhaus Statt Fabrik (2018)
- Marketization in Long-Term Care: A Cross-Country Comparison of Large For-Profit Nursing Home Chains by Charlene Harrington, Frode F Jacobsen, Justin Panos, Allyson Pollock, Shailen Sutaria and Marta Szebehely (2017)
- Who Really Runs Britain?: The Private Companies Taking Control of Benefits, Prisons, Asylum, Deportation, Security, Social Care and the NHS by Alan White (2017)
- Shadow State: Inside the Secret Companies that Run Britain by Alan White (2016)
- Where Does the Money Go? Financialised chains and the crisis in residential care by Diane Burns, Luke Cowie, Joe Earle, Peter Folkman, Julie Froud, Paula Hyde, Sukhdev Johal, Ian Rees Jones, Anne Killett and Karel Williams (2016)
- The failure of privatised adult social care in England: what is to be done? by Bob Hudson/The Centre for Health and the Public Interest (CHPI) (2016)
- Health Care Reforms and the Rise of Global Multinational Health Care Companies by Jane Lethbridge/Public Services International (PSI) (2015)
- The wrong medicine: A review of the impacts of NHS reforms in England by Anna Coote and Joe Penny/New Economics Foundation (2014)
- Bad Pharma: How Drug Companies Mislead Doctors and Harm Patients by Ben Goldacre (2012)
- The rise of the “public services industry”: A report for UNISON by Paul Gosling (2011)
- Beyond the Facade by Eileen Chubb of Compassion in Care (2008)
- Investing for Life: Meeting Poor People’s Needs for Access to Medicines through Responsible Business Practices by Oxfam International (2007)
- European healthcare services and multinational companies: Major trends and eligibility for European Works Councils by Jane Lethbridge/Public Services International (PSI) (2007)
- Benchmarking AIDS: Evaluating Pharmaceutical Company Responses to the Public Health Crisis in Emerging Markets by the Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility (2006)
- Branding the Cure: A Consumer Perspective on Corporate Social Responsibility, Drug Promotion and the Pharmaceutical Industry in Europe by Consumers International (2006)
- Privatization of hospitals: "A great economic monopoly" by Sabine Rieser (2006)
- Corporate Control of Healthcare in Australia by Fran Collyer and Kevin White/The Australia Institute (2001)
- A Healthy Business? World Health and the Pharmaceutical Industry by Andrew Chetley (1990)
Activism
Spain: Galicia: The staff of private nursing homes intensify protests and actions to make the strike visible
Confederación Intersindical Galega (CIG) | March 21, 2022
Since the start of the strike last Thursday the 17th, the staff of the residences have been taking the lead in protests to take to the streets a conflict that goes beyond being strictly labor, as it is a sector that fulfills an important social obligation, that is the care of the elderly.
Spain: CCOO union is protesting to demand a 6.5% pay rise as part of the dependency sector agreement
Marta Alonso | IFOMO | March 3, 2022
The union has announced that it will continue its efforts until it achieves an update of the salary adjustments for 2022, for the sake of improving the working and economic conditions of the workers "to get them out of the situation of precariousness and working poverty in which they find each other".
Portugal: Complaints of low wages in the private hospital sector
Confederação Geral dos Trabalhadores Portugueses | July 2, 2021
The protest and struggle for better wages and for the negotiation of collective bargaining in the private hospital sector was brought to the door of three institutions: Hospital da Luz, in Póvoa de Varzim, belonging to the Luz Saúde Group, Casa de Saúde São Lázaro, in Braga, and Hospital Lusíadas, of Grupo Lusíadas, also in Braga.
France: Day of strikes and demonstrations in the health sector
Info Chalon | June 15, 2021
A call to strike and to demonstrate was launched for all employees in the associations, The Safeguard 71, AMEC, Papillons Blancs, the Prado, the Bridge, ADFAAH, the PEP71... the French Red Cross, the private nursing homes of Korian, Domusvi, the public hospital services and all private health establishments.
Germany: Hospitals back into public hands!
Rosa Luxemburg Stiftung | June 8, 2021
Job cuts, outsourcing or wage cuts are part of everyday life here. For profit-oriented hospital groups, rather profits and dividend payouts to their shareholders are their top priority, as opposed to health care or good working conditions.
Protests and strikes by hospital workers in Germany
Markus Salzmann | World Socialist Web Site (WSWS) | May 17, 2021
While workers are threatened with layoffs, poor wages and working conditions, the health companies are posting record profits. For the big hospital operators like Helios or Asklepios, 2020 was extremely profitable.
Spain: Protest actions in Galicia against the privatization of care
Xaquín Pastoriza and Paula Quinteiro | Poder Popular | June 13, 2020
Under the name of Civic Marches, it was a tribute to all the victims who died in nursing homes in Galicia during the coronavirus crisis while denouncing the model of privatization of care (residences, day centers, care at home, dependency care) that exacerbated the health crisis.
French Nursing Homes Employees Protest Pay, Conditions
VOA | May 26, 2020
Employees of a major group of French nursing homes on Monday took part in protests across France to call for better pay amid the coronavirus crisis.
Spain: Workers from private residences in the Balearic Islands demonstrate to achieve better working conditions
Unión Sindical Obrera | April 12, 2019
Workers from private residences for the elderly in the Balearic Islands, from the Domusvi and Grupo 5 companies, demonstrated yesterday in front of the Can Carbonell nursing home, in the Mallorcan municipality of Marratxí, to demand improvements to their working conditions.
Germany: Nursing emergency: Hamburg wants a referendum for more staff
Heinz Willemsen | Marx 21 | May 18, 2018
Meike Saerbeck is a nurse at the private Asklepios Klinik St. Georg. Florian Stender works for a health insurance company. Both are active in the "Hamburg Alliance for More Staff".
Switzerland: Privatization of public hospitals: No way! Joint hospital group: Yes, but!
VPOD | August 16, 2016
Private hospital groups such as Genolier, Hirslanden or the German companies Fresenius, Rhön or Ameos are in the early stages of securing the profits of the healthcare system in Switzerland. The VPOD union demands that the two cantonal governments do not allow themselves to be turned into henchmen of private investors...
UK: NHS 'People's March' protests: Thousands join London's new 'jarrow march' in demonstrations against health cuts
Charlie Cooper and Serina Sandhu | The Independent | September 7, 2014
Only last week, three companies – Spire, Circle and Ramsay Health – announced large year-on-year increases in their NHS income. Spire, which has 35 clinics and hospitals which offer NHS-funded care, took £117m of NHS money in the first half of this year – up 29 per cent.
International:
- European Public Service Union (EPSU)
- European Network of Corporate Observatories (ENCO)
- Committee for the Abolition of Illegitimate Debt (CADTM)
- UNI Global Union
- UNI Américas
- UNI Europa
- Public Services International (PSI)
- Labour Start
- IndustriALL
- Fresenius Global Union Alliance
Spain:
- Trade Union Confederation of Workers' Commissions (CCOO)
- Trade Union of Independent Workers and Public Servants (CSIF)
- Galician Inter-Union Confederation (CIG)
- General Confederation of Labor (CGT)
- Northwest Public Health Neighborhood Platform (Noroeste Sanidad)
- Madrid Association of Independant Nursing (AME)
- Assembly Movement of Health Workers (MATS Sanidad)
- Workers' Trade Union (USO)
- General Union of Workers (UGT)
- Regional Federation of Neighborhood Associations of Madrid (FRAVM)
- Union of Nursing Technicians (SAE)
- Basque Workers Solidarity (ELA)
- Regional Federation of Neighborhood Associations of Madrid (FRAVM)
- Federation of Relatives and Residents of Care Home Residences (REDE)
- Dignified Aging
- Union of Base Commissions (COBAS)
- Health Assembly Union (SAS)
- Committee of Patriotic Workers (LAB)
- Plataform for those affected by mortgages (PAH)
- Union of Administration and Services of Castilla-La Mancha (STAS-CLM)
- Platform for Health and Public Health in Asturias
- Federation of Associations for the Defense of Public Health (FADSP)
- Workers of Residences in Galicias (TREGA)
- Association of Relatives of People Affected in the Residences of Domusvi Alcoi and Cocentaina (AFADOMUSVI)
France:
- Workers' Force (FO)
- General Confederation of Labor (CGT)
- French Democratic Confederation of Labour (CFDT)
- National Union of Establishments and Residences for the Elderly (SNYERPA)
- Regional Health Agency (ARS)
- National Union of Young General Practitioners (SNJMG)
- Circle of Caregivers in Nursing Homes (CPAE)
- Occitanie Solidarity - Nursing Home Initiatives (Collectif OSIE)
- National Union of Nursing Professionals (SNPI)
- French Union for Free Medicine (UFML Syndicat)
- National Union of Autonomous Trade Unions (UNSA)
- National Center of Employees (CNE)
- Union of employees, technicians and managers (SETCa)
- French Confederation of Management (CFE-CGC)
- Solidarity Trade Union (SUS)
- Union of Doctors of Health Centers (USMCS)
- SUD Korian Employees
- Mutualist Alternative
- France Rein
Germany:
- United Services Trade Union (Ver.di)
- Marburg Federation
- Trade Union for Food, Pleasure and Restaurants (NGG)
- Financial Turnaround
- Heinrich-Böll Foundation
- Labour Net Germany
- German Trade Union Confederation (DGB)
- Industrial Union for Building, Agriculture and Environment (IG BAU)
- Komba Union
- Medical Association Offenbach (ÄVO)
- People Over Profits
- German Hospital Society (DKG)
- German Nursing Council
- Fresenius Watch
- Association of Ethical Shareholders
- Rosa Luxemburg Foundation
- Hospitals Instead of Factories
- Environment & Development Forum (Forum UE)
- Municipal Employers' Association of Bavaria (KAV Bayern)
- Free Workers' Union (FAU)
- Federation of Democratic Workers' Associations (DIDF)
- Hamburg Alliance for More Staff in Hospitals
- Hamburger Hospital Movement
- Attac Hamburg
- Action Alliance Together for Our Clinic
- Office against Age Discrimination
- We've Had Enough
United Kingdom:
- GMB Union
- UNISON
- Older Living Matters
- We Own It
- Corporate Watch
- Centre for Health and the Public Interest
- NHS For Sale
- Keep Our NHS Public
- The Lowdown NHS
- Defend Our NHS
- Stockport NHS Watch
- NHS Fight Back
- Health Emergency
- Patients Before Profits: Justice for Victims of Ian Paterson
- The People's Assembly
- We Are Plan C
- Socialist Health Association
- British Medical Association (BMA)
- New Economics Foundation
Portugal:
- General Union of Workers (UGT)
- General Confederation of Portuguese Workers (CGTP - IN)
- Portuguese Nurses Union (SEP)
- Trade, Office and Services Workers Union of Portugal (CESP)
- Union of Workers in the Hospitality, Tourism, Restaurants and Similar Industries of the North
- Union of State Technical Staff and Public Purpose Entities (STE)
- South Zone Physicians Union (SMZS)
- Order of Physicians
- Consumer Protection (Deco Proteste)
- Public Institute of Participatory Management (ADSE)
- Health, Solidarity and Social Security Workers Union (STSSS)
- Solidarity Response Platform
USA:
- Families USA
- Public Citizen Health Research Group
- Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility
- Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union (RWDSU)
- Service Employees International Union - United Healthcare Workers West (SEIU-UHW)
Switzerland:
- Swiss Professional Association of Nursing Women and Professionals (SBK/ASI)
- Public Service Union (VPOD/SSA)
- Trade Union Confederation of the Canton of Zurich (GBKZ)
- Unia Union
Australia:
- NSW Nurses & Midwives Association
- Health and Community Services Union (HACSU)
- Mildura Hospital Conversation
- Reclaim the Base
Other:
- Health and Social Care Trade Union of Slovenia (SZSVS)
- Center for Social Research (CEDRA) - Slovenia
- GPA Union - Austria
- Vida Union - Austria
- National Federation of Private Health Unions (FENASSAP) - Chile
- SOL Foundation - Chile
- Union of Health and Social Security Workers (SINTRASASS) - Colombia
- Colombian Medical Federation
- Consumers' Association of Ireland
- Services Industrial Professional and Technical Union (SIPTU) - Ireland
- Italian General Confederation of Labor (CGIL) - Italy
- ACV Puls Union - Belgium
- Public Service Union (VPOD/SSA) - Switzerland
- Turkish Petroleum, Chemical and Rubber Industry Workers' Union - Turkey
- National Union of Public and General Employees (NUPGE) - Canada
- Korea Democratic Pharmaceutical Workers Union (KDFU) - Korea
- Union of Employees of the Ricardo Palma Clinic Administrator - Peru
Privatization
UK: NHS privatisation drive linked to rise in avoidable deaths, study suggests
Andrew Gregory | The Guardian | June 29, 2022
It shows the growth in health contracts being tendered to private companies has been associated with a drop in care quality and higher rates of treatable mortality – patient deaths considered avoidable with timely, effective healthcare.
The privatisation of the care home sector in Belgium
Maria Cecilia Trionfetti and Natalia Hirtz | European Network of Corporate Observatories (ENCO) | January 18, 2022
Since the 1990s, three decisive factors have led to a radically changed landscape: the for-profit sector’s encroachment on the public and non-profit sector; several major investment groups’ domination over the sector, to the detriment of smaller companies; the growing presence of property investment players and the injection of government funds into the for-profit sector.
UK: The Private Sector Will Destroy the NHS, Not Save It
Jatinder Hayre | Jacobin | January 16, 2022
NHS data shows that the private sector, under the 2020 deal, cared for just 0.08 percent of COVID-19 patients during the pandemic. On average, that means the entire private sector cared for eight COVID patients a day between March 2020 and March 2021. The NHS, meanwhile, averaged ten thousand a day.
In the midst of a pandemic, WHO is full of praises for the private for-profit healthcare sector
Rachel Knaebel | European Network of Corporate Observatories (ENCO) | October 14, 2021
"It becomes even more worrisome that it is issued during the Covid-19 pandemic, which has shown that well-financed public healthcare is the only bulwark for realising the right to health”, Baba Aye, Health & Social Services Officer at Public Services International, wrote in a statement on May, 27th, 2021.
The political connections behind the rise of privatised care ’champions’ in France
Olivier Petitjeun | European Network of Corporate Observatories (ENCO) | October 14, 2021
A slow process of privatisation and liberalisation, along with the ageing of the European population and the growing demand for elderly care, have opened up a new multi-billion euro market which is increasingly dominated by a handful of increasingly larger corporate groups.
UK government accelerates National Health Service privatisation under the cover of the pandemic
Sanya Perera | World Socialist Web Site | April 13, 2021
Having signed up to NHS England’s deals awarding an eyewatering £10 billion to private companies, Spire’s profits, along with more than 90 other providers, are guaranteed for the next four years.
Germany: The Covid-19 pandemic and the privatization of the healthcare system
Reinhard Jellen | Heise Online | March 29, 2021
Other private investors from Switzerland, France and the Netherlands such as Ardian, Orpea, Korian, Atos, Diaverum, Omnicare, Sanoptis, Synlab, Colosseum Dental Group, Alloheim, Linimed and Ameos bought specialist clinics, nursing homes, nursing services, medical practices and laboratory chains together across Europe.
Germany: The Privatization of Health Care: The "Hospital Monopoly" of Aging Patriarchs
Harald Weinberg | ND Aktuell | July 19, 2020
Now you have to understand that the structural change of the past few years has already led to the result that more than every third hospital is privately owned (37 percent). Since reunification, this share has more than doubled (1991: 15 percent, see chart).
The creeping privatisation of healthcare: Problematic EU policies and the corporate lobby push
Rachel Tansey | Corporate Europe Observatory (CEO) | June 2, 2017
Squeezing profits for shareholders out of health services risks deteriorating working conditions; worse pay, reduced staff levels, greater workloads, more stress, all of which negatively impact on safety and quality of care.
Catalonia: Concern in the Department of Health about the monopoly of private health
Àngels Gallardo | El Periódico | September 15, 2016
The situation of virtual monopoly created in the private health offer in Catalonia, until now in the hands of the IDC Salud group, previously in those of the QuironSalud group and, for a week, owned by the German group Fresenius Helios, worries those responsible in the Health Department...
'Fraud' and 'cover-up' exposed in failing semi-privatised Irish healthcare
Jo Murphy-Lawless | Open Democracy | August 19, 2014
The growth in unaccountable private hospitals, Big Pharma’s protected presence in Ireland, and a rapacious private health insurance industry, and the very best paid consultants and managers. All of these have benefitted from the supposedly ‘non-political’ structures set up in recent years to oversee health provision.
UK: Unhealthy Influence: The Rise of the NHS Partners Network
Andrew Robertson | Corporate Watch | March 21, 2013
The transformation of a small private healthcare trade association into a powerful and influential lobby group provides a clear indication of the direction the NHS has taken. Today the NHS Partners Network has some of the most powerful private healthcare companies as members and is a trustee on the NHS Confederation board.
& Lawsuits
UK: Care homes: Following the money trail
James Melley and Alison Holt | BBC | December 6, 2021
Three of the UK's biggest care home groups are owned by private equity companies and are saddled with significant amounts of debt. BBC Panorama has been looking at what this means for people living and working in the homes run by two of those groups, and for the future of care in this country.
In Germany, founders of private hospital companies are bankrolling the pro-business party FDP
Rachel Knaebel | European Network of Corporate Observatories (ENCO) | October 10, 2021
In the past ten years, the FDP received significant amount of funding from men and companies who have played a key role in the emergence of large for-profit hospital groups in Germany.
Investigation: Care homes as profit machines for corporations and investors
Nico Schmidt and Harald Schumann | Investigate Europe | August 24, 2021
At the same time, the financial jugglers often only employ as many nursing staff as required by law. According to Alloheim, 60 percent of the income goes to the home staff. The company explains that this is “within the usual industry limits”.
Europe: Grey gold — The billion Euro business of elder care
Investigate Europe | July, 2021
The Covid-19 pandemic caused an escalation of the already dire circumstances in many countries. But while there is a shortage of care workers almost everywhere given the ever-growing number of people in need, international corporations and financial investors are making huge profits.
Belgium: Investigation: Do some nursing homes take advantage of our seniors' money?
Anne-Catherine Croufer | RTBF | January 26, 2021
They are mostly multinationals, generally listed on the stock exchange, held by pension or investment funds or even holding companies of large industrial families. The best known on the market are Korian, Senior Living Group, Orpea, Armonea, Vulpia, Le Noble Age, etc. Their goal: to make a profit.
USA: Kidney Dialysis Is a Booming Business—Is It Also a Rigged One?
Carrie Arnold and Larry C. Price | Scientific American | December 14, 2020
By gobbling up individual clinics, one by one, the companies could avoid federal oversight of corporate mergers, which generally only kick in when an acquisition is valued over a certain amount. Before 2001, that threshold was $15 million. Today, it sits at $94 million.
Spain: The other big business with residences: investment funds and real estate allocate hundreds of millions to buy nursing homes
Manuel Rico | Info Libre | May 11, 2020
But there is a second, less visible business that has grown strongly in the last three years: old people's homes. Real estate investment in the facilities where our elderly are cared for.
Spain: Who rules over the privatized health services in Madrid?
Miguel Mora | Contexto y Acción | May 10, 2020
Díaz Ayuso protects companies that do business with health since Aguirre dismantled the public system. Florentino Pérez, the German group Fresenius and the Dutch DIF are the great beneficiaries of this policy.
84% of care home beds in England owned by private firms
Denis Campbell | The Guardian | September 19, 2019
More than eight out of 10 care home beds are provided by profit-driven companies, including more than 50,000 by large operators owned by private equity firms, research reveals.
USA: Whistleblower alleges DaVita, Fresenius involved in kickback scheme
Shelby Livingston | Modern Healthcare | August 2, 2019
A whistleblower has alleged that DaVita Kidney Care and Fresenius and charity organization American Kidney Fund were involved in a years-long kickback scheme in which patients were incentivized to use only those dialysis providers who donated to the charity.
Portugal: "Impermissible promiscuity": Left Bloc asks for clarification on PPP hospitals in Cascais and Loures
Esquerda | May 16, 2019
The Left Bloc's request also refers to Hospital Beatriz Ângelo de Loures (HBA), from where it received complaints from "patients who are transferred from Hospital da Luz to the HBA after undergoing complicated surgeries or hospitalizations, in order to continue the treatments, once the limits of insurance were exhausted".
UK: Inadequate care at three luxury homes owned by high-end care providers Barchester, HC-One and Bupa
Sarah Whitebloom | Older Living Matters | November 27, 2018
Despite being owned by three of the best known care groups in the UK, the homes – HC-One’s Pytchley Court in Northampton, Barchester’s Sherwood Lodge in Preston and Bupa’s Battersea-based Meadbank - have each recently been awarded the worst possible rating of ‘Inadequate’ following investigations by teams of CQC inspectors.
& Relations
France: Abuse in nursing homes: 140 complaints under examination against Orpea, Korian and Domusvi
West Observer | May 13, 2022
At least 140 complaints have been filed against the managers of Orpea, Korian and Domusvi nursing homes in recent years and are still being examined to this day, according to the count made by franceinfo on Friday May 13.
France: After the Orpea affair, the model of lucrative private nursing homes called into question
Véronique Chocron | Le Monde | February 10, 2022
From the strengthening of state controls to the pure and simple disappearance of the for-profit sector, the proposals are multiplying.
USA: Complaint Alleges California Dialysis Providers—Including Fresenius—Discriminate Against Latino and Asian Patients
UNI Global Union | January 12, 2022
The complaint, submitted to the department’s Office for Civil Rights, details how the dialysis providers disproportionately subjected Latino and Asian American patients to unsafe and potentially lethal dialysis treatment at a rate approximately 50 per cent higher than that of their white counterparts.
How much money the UK’s four biggest care homes make and how much they pay their staff
Marc Shoffman | iNews | December 3, 2021
The four largest for-profit care home providers are owned either by private equity companies, hedge funds or offshore investment firms.
Portugal: "Greed and Profit Virus" dominates private health groups
Confederação Geral dos Trabalhadores Portugueses | October 19, 2021
The Employers' Association of Private Hospitalization (APHP), which represents, among others, Luz Saúde, CUF and the Lusíadas Group, continues to incessantly seek the withdrawal of workers' rights so that they have even more profits.
Portugal: The Directorate-General for Social Protection for Workers in the Public Sector (ADSE) Council calls exclusions announced by CUF and Luz Saúde "unethical"
Maria Caetano | Diário de Notícias | September 7, 2021
ADSE's General and Supervisory Board considers it "unacceptable and unethical" that the CUF and Luz Saúde groups exclude treatments and surgeries previously scheduled for dates after the entry into force of new price lists, which took place on September 1.
France: Korian, DomusVi: in nursing homes, anti-union repression is in full swing
Cécile Rousseau | L'Humanite | October 1, 2020
Employees of several nursing homes of the Korian and DomusVi groups call out union-busting tactics, which have gone as far as dismissals.
Spain: Privatized hospitals in Madrid force chronic patients to pay to send their medicines home
Sofía Pérez Mendoza | El Diario | April 11, 2020
Privatized hospitals in Madrid are forcing some chronic patients to pay to send their medications home if they decide not to go to the center to pick them up in order to avoid risks. The patients must hire the courier service themselves and bear the costs.
Australia's biggest private health insurers illegally rejected thousands of claims
Christopher Knaus | The Guardian | July 7, 2020
In 2016, another major insurer, Bupa, admitted it had rejected 7,740 claims without a doctor’s review in the five years before that date. The insurer had spent years falsely telling customers their rejections had been “determined by a medical practitioner”.
Spain: Slavery-like-conditions in 29 elder care homes, according to family members and workers
Galicia Press | June 28, 2019
The workers argue that they have denounced "cuts in labor rights or illegal practices" on several occasions to the Regional Government of Galicia. Given the administrative passivity, they denounce the "complicit" attitude with the "slave-owning" practices of the DomusVi emporium, whose headquarters in Spain are located in Vigo.
UK private care homes facing closure
Barry Mason | World Socialist Web Site (WSWS) | December 7, 2015
Private care home providers exist to make profit, not to fulfil a social need and if a profit cannot be made providers will withdraw. Between October 2014 and March 2015, for the first time in the UK, the number of closures exceeded the number of new openings of care homes with a net loss of 3,000 beds.
Covid-19
Private UK care homes’ profit margins soared in pandemic, research finds
Shanti Das | The Guardian | July 24, 2022
The UK’s biggest care home chains saw their profit margins jump by 18% on average during the pandemic, new research shows, while the highest paid director’s salary surged to £2.3m.
Portugal: Private hospitals continue to charge Covid fees, with rates reaching 150 euros
Beatriz Madaleno de Assunção | CNN Portugal | June 10, 2022
The Health Regulatory Authority (ERS) confirmed, in May 2020, the right of private healthcare providers to include the extra related to the price of personal protective equipment (PPE) in the costs charged to patients. However, two years have passed and the country is no longer in a state of emergency, but companies continue charging these fees.
Europe: Covid-19 didn’t cause the care crisis—privatisation did
Rosa Pavanelli | Social Europe | March 8, 2022
Across the world, public funding is extracted from our care systems and diverted into offshore bank accounts or transformed into massive dividends—while patients suffer and workers are left exhausted, under-resourced and unable to do their jobs properly.
Germany: "Divi-Gate": suspected fraud in hospitals still unsolved
MDR Aktuell | December 29, 2021
The Federal Audit Office even presented a report in June in which it supported the suspicion of fraud... Helios Kliniken in particular stands out: During the pandemic, almost 170 million euros flowed into the group’s 20 hospitals in central Germany, 31 million euros into the Helios clinic in Erfurt alone.
Australia: Competition watchdog puts profiting private health insurance funds on notice
Stephanie Dalzell | ABC News | December 9, 2021
Australia's competition watchdog has put private health insurers on notice, warning they must follow through on a promise to pay back any profits gained on the back of Covid-19 lockdowns and restrictions.
Top investors to call for improved working conditions in care homes
Elizabeth Howcroft | Reuters | March 31, 2021
A group of investors managing a collective $3 trillion in assets will call on operators of nursing homes to improve pay and working standards for care workers, noting the “devastating outcomes” of the Covid-19 pandemic on the industry.
Europe: Health privatization translates into more deaths from covid, according to report
Swiss Info | January 27, 2021
The gradual privatization of healthcare in the European Union (EU), accompanied by austerity policies, contributed to a higher number of deaths from covid-19, according to a new report published this Wednesday by the pressure group Corporate Europe Observatory (CEO).
Spain: A complaint of 19 relatives against six care homes in Madrid is on its way
Público | January 5, 2021
Relatives consider them responsible for alleged crimes of reckless homicide, reckless injuries, omission of the duty to help and prevarication for their management during the first state of alarm due to the coronavirus pandemic.
Portugal: Pregnant women who test positive for covid-19 are refused in private hospitals
Público | September 10, 2020
Hospital da Luz also only guarantees scheduled deliveries to infected women at the Lisbon unit.
In Spain, the tragedy of nursing homes is attributed to several French companies
Laura Guien | Sin Permiso | June 12, 2020
According to an investigation by our editorial partner infoLibre, the Orpea group appears on the black list of residences in Madrid. As of March 30, of the fifteen most affected nursing homes in the region, three belong to this group.
France to investigate elderly care homes after coronavirus deaths
Christina Okello | RFI | May 21, 2020
The probes come after several families filed complaints about the treatment provided to their loved ones during the coronavirus pandemic after four elderly residents died in care, adding to the mounting death toll in France's retirement homes.
Spain: The Ministry of Health orders intervention in the Oasis and DomusVi residences to contain the spread of COVID-19
Europa Press | April 11, 2020
As reported by the Minister of Health and Consumption, Patrícia Gómez, this decision has been adopted after verifying that the actions carried out by these centers in order to control the spread of the disease have been "insufficient" and a high number of both residents and workers have tested positive...
Financials
Tax Havens & Evasion
UK: Virgin Care among firms with lucrative NHS deals and a tax haven status
Daniel Boffey | The Guardian | March 21, 2015
"Although Spire has been reconstituted during 2014 as a UK stock exchange-quoted company, it is still controlled by a Guernsey-based private equity operation, while Bio Products Laboratory Holdings is owned from the Cayman Islands by Bain Capital, another private equity fund."
An Unhealthy Business: Major Healthcare Companies Use Tax Havens to Avoid Millions In UK Tax
Corporate Watch | March 17, 2012
Spire Healthcare, the UK’s second largest private healthcare company, is channelling £65m a year through a Luxembourg subsidiary of Cinven, its private equity owner, almost wiping out its taxable UK earnings.
Major Projects
UK: Unison warns against Hinchingbrooke franchise bidders
Hunts Post | November 1, 2020
Unison claims private companies delivering NHS healthcare have a history of failing to deliver the services they have been paid for.
French retirement home companies export to China
20 Minutes | June 7, 2014
DomusVi (number three in the sector in France) signed a partnership agreement with Hanfor, a Chinese investment fund, creating the company Duomei, in order to manage 100 retirement homes and 20 home healthcare agencies in China in five years time.
Procurement
Portugal: Private healthcare companies demand millions from the state for pandemic losses
Esquerda | February 2, 2022
According to Jornal de Notícias (JN), the Luz Saúde group has already submitted a request for financial rebalancing to the Regional Administration of Lisbon and Tagus Valley (ARS LVT). In the absence of a response, the private group will resort to the justice system.
Portugal: How public health feeds private health
Cláudia Marques Santos | Setenta e Quatro | December 17, 2021
In 2019, of the State Budget for Health for the purchase of goods and services, in the amount of 10.9 million euros, more than half (53%), that is 5.8 million, was destined for purchases to the private sector.
UK: Private hospitals get mega-bailout from the NHS
Solomon Hughes | Morning Star | September 20, 2020
The privateers facing a huge loss of business because of Covid-19 were happy to snaffle up a ‘cash positive’ deal thanks to block booking of beds, whether they were used or not.
Australia: The policy scandal of a $11b taxpayer subsidy to private health insurance.
John Menadue | Pearls and Irritations | January 15, 2016
Yet the government allows itself to be led by the nose by the rent-seekers in the PHI sector and private hospitals. Their case is threadbare, but their political clout is considerable. Ramsay Healthcare is a major donor to the Liberal Party. They secretly play to their political connections all the time. Ramsay paid its CEO $34m in 2014.
Europe: Even after the Covid pandemic, ever more public money for the private care sector?
Olivier Petitjean | European Network of Corporate Observatories (ENCO) | January 18, 2022
And yet – in spite of the infamous record of private elderly homes and of the widespread calls for new investment in public health systems – Europe’s private care giants might actually emerge stronger, richer and more powerful from the Covid pandemic.
UK: EXCLUSIVE: Private hospitals were paid over £1.5 billion during the pandemic
Good Law Project | November 3, 2021
Ramsay Health Care, which operates 34 UK hospitals and treatment centres, won contracts worth up to £380m. Its general counsel previously worked for the Department of Health and Social Care between 2008 and 2013.
UK: The privateers eating our health service
Solomon Hughes | Morning Star | April 27, 2017
So Ramsay, one of Britain’s larger private hospital firms, isn’t really private at all. Nearly four out of five patients actually come from the NHS, thanks to privatisation. Ramsay’s £422 million annual turnover relies on a huge injection of NHS cash — far more than private health insurance.