General Healthcare Group Merges Seven Former Nuffield Hospitals into its BMI Portfolio

This news item was added on 2nd May 2008

General Healthcare Group is extending its BMI portfolio by fully integrating all seven of the former Nuffield hospitals that it acquired in February 2008.

Following a review of the transaction, the Office of Fair Trading (OFT) has unconditionally cleared the merger, deciding that it will not result in competition problems in any of the markets concerned.

Each of the seven hospitals (BMI Birmingham, BMI Bury St Edmunds, BMI Harrogate, BMI Huddersfield, BMI Lancaster, BMI Lincoln and BMI North London) will now be fully integrated into BMI Healthcare’s regional and national structure.

General Healthcare Group previously agreed terms for the sell-on of two further hospitals acquired at Gerrards Cross and Nottingham to Spire Healthcare and Ramsay Health Care respectively.

“We are delighted with the outcome of the OFT review and their highly pragmatic approach, and very excited about the role that all seven hospitals will play in our future and in the future of their respective communities,” said Adrian Fawcett, chief executive of General Healthcare Group, of which BMI Healthcare is a subsidiary. “We are proud to be the premier independent provider of acute care services in the country with 56 centres of excellence across the UK as well as a number of dedicated NHS facilities.”