HealthSpan Partners, an affiliate of US health group Bon Secours Mercy Health, has agreed to acquire Irish GP firm Centric Health and its network of 420 doctors. The deal places Ireland’s largest primary care operator under a US healthcare services owner backing growth across Ireland, Germany and the Netherlands.

Centric Health was founded in Ireland in 2003 and has grown to 420 GPs across 90 locations, with operations established in the Netherlands in 2020 and Germany in 2021. Chief executive Dr Maurice Cox, who co-founded the business with Dr Ray Power, will remain as chief executive and shareholder after completion.

Centric Health’s latest available financial statement, covering 2024, shows a loss of €22.5 million. The business is a portfolio company of Five Arrows, the alternative assets arm of Rothschild & Co with €14 billion in assets under management, which has owned it since 2018.

HealthSpan Partners is a diversified healthcare services organisation, while Bon Secours Mercy Health is an international non-profit healthcare company operating 51 hospitals and more than 1,200 sites of care.

GPs and practices will continue to operate under the Centric Health brand with full operational and clinical independence, and patients do not need to take any action, the company said.

“HealthSpan Partners is the perfect partner as it brings expertise and insight, global networks and reach as well as the necessary financial support to help us achieve our ambitious growth plans,” said Cox.

“As we continue to grow, we will keep investing to make sure the relationship between doctor and patient stays personal and local, because that is the model that best serves our patients,” Cox added.

The structural driver is a change of ownership model, with a healthcare services owner replacing a private equity investor to fund expansion of a GP-led network in which many doctors operate under a profit share arrangement.

For the sector, the deal confirms that international healthcare groups are targeting scaled, GP-led primary care networks in Ireland as platforms for wider European expansion.

Source: irishexaminer.com / irishtimes.com / en.wikipedia.org