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Corporate Health Care
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The Corporatisation of Health and Aged Care in Australia

This page is the root page for the Australian section. It was completely rewritten in 2006 and now provides a broad overview of the corporatisation of health and aged care in Australia. There are links to pages which address different sections of the health system in Australia.
(Created June 2004. Completely rewritten Sept 2006 last entry 10/07)

 

 

 

 

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Warnings and Policy Statements

I travelled to the USA in 1993 to obtain documents about National Medical Enterprises (now called Tenet healthcare). These documents provided a profound insight into how the market operated in health care. I soon realised that the problems were not isolated to this company but were systemic to the corporate marketplace. I have tried to make this point and warn Australia of the dangers since then. Others have also done so. Governments have had an ideological health care agenda which has caused them to disregarded all warnings.

Extracts from "Remission Impossible" : Ron Williams (1992)
Ron Williams studied the US Medical System and then politics and economic thinking in Australia. He was among the first to understand the overall threat. His dire warnings about the pending US corporatisation of our health system fell on deaf ears and his book was hardly read.

The Hon Michael Wooldridge : Speech to the Australian Medical Association - May 1996
Although the labour government had moved strongly towards privatisation in the early 1990s it was Dr. Michael Wooldrige, minister for health, in the Coalition government elected in 1996 who staked his future on the commodification and competitive corporatisation of health care. His aggressive responses to criticism and his willingness to scheme were his undoing and led to his ultimate resignation. This is his speech to the Australian Medical Association explaining his policies.

Dr. Weedon welcomes Dr. Wooldridge - May 1996
Dr. Weedon, president of the Australian AMA made his dissenting views very clear when he introduced Dr. Wooldridge prior to his policy speech. This is his introduction.

 

Corporatisation in Australia

Over the years I have written a number of reviews looking broadly at different aspects of the corporatisation of health care in Australia. Some have been put on this web site. As they were written at different times and for different purposes there is some overlap.

Corporate Medicine in Australia
I wrote this review in late 1997. It analyses the application of economic rationalist ideas to health care comparing what had happened in the USA with what was happening in Australia. Because values, trust and integrity are more critical in health and aged care than any other sector of society health is at the eye of a wider social battle between community values and economic ideology. Like it or not those who work in health care have been drafted into this war. Their future depends on it and so perhaps does the prospect of a society in which economic self-interest is harnessed by the values and norms of a civil society of reflective interacting individuals.

The Dominance of the US market and US marketplace Ideas
This page was written some time in early 2000 after the chairman of Australia's National Competition Council (NCC), Graeme Samuel's speech to the world bank calling for urgent global health care reform using economic levers. This page discredits the claims that we are different to the USA and that these things could not happen here.

THE GREAT DIVIDE IN PERCEPTIONS about the CORPORATE MARKETPLACE
This page looks at market failure in the USA. It examnes the great divide between the perceptions of market advocates when contrasted with the way health professionals, patients and most citizens perceive and experence the market system in health care. It goes on to list the red flags which should alert citizens and regulators in Australia to the possibility of dysfunction. I wrote this page in 2004 when Primary Health induced the University of Wollongong to take a page off the web site.

Privatisation and the public hospital system
This page written in 2002 to analyse the privatisation of public hospitals and colocation traced the application of market theory and corporatisation leading up to these processes. See same page under the privatisation section below.

Regulation in Australia
This page also written in early 2000 examines the way in which regulations, which protect citizens from unsuitable, even criminal corporate health care corporations, have been undermined in the corporate interest in Australia. It tells the story of multiple regulatory failures and the unsuccessful struggle to get regulators to regulate.

The Corporatisation of Health Care in Australia
This page written later in 2000 describes the Australian government's multiple attempts to introduce a corporate health care market into Australia. The strategies used and the depths to which they sank to accomplish this are described.

 DEFICIENCIES IN FIRB
A criticism of the deficiencies and loopholes in the FIRB process written early 1998 after the deficiencies had been exploited to bring Sun Healthcare into Australia. The problems created for state regulators and the refusal of federal governments to do anything about it are reviewed.

WELCOMING MULTINATIONALS IN AUSTRALIA : Some considerations
This late 2000 page examines some issues surrounding overseas ownership of health care in Australia and some of the social processes and problems. It needs some editing!

Politics, Markets, Health and Democracy
This 2004 web page explores the links and relationships between political ideology, politicians, the marketplace, ideas about democracy, and health care. It describes and contrasts the role of these factors in the USA and
in Australia.

The Scan Scam
This is summarised on the
Scan Scam page. There is more detail on the Mayne page dealing with conflicts of interest.
Radiology was one of the areas of medical practice turned into a corporate business by government policy. Doctors were turned into businessmen acting for their companies, yet the minister of health, Dr. Wooldridge treated them like disinterested doctors who would put responsibility to the community first - something he had destroyed. The scandal involved Dr. Wooldridge, Mayne Nickless' Barry Catchlove (the chairman of the HIC), and the radiologists in the purchase of costly scanners. It cost Catchlove his post and Wooldridge his political credibility. The doctors whom they blamed were largely exonerated.

See also -- The web pages "Corporate Medicine: I told you so" and "Corporate Medicine - Hospital licences" in the section about Columbia/HCA below. They deal with the control of US style corporate practices in Australia.

Funding and Rationing in Australia
This page written in early 2000 is a flight of fancy. It looks at Australia's funding system and for the purpose of the argument accepts that in spite of our claimed wealth the rationing of expensive care is inevitable. It considers the likely consequences of "rationing for corporate profit" then creates an idealised future where citizens decide on health care funding and where scarce resources are stretched fairly for maximum benefit rather than shareholders wallets.

The Market, Contracts and the Bush
When Graham Samuel, chairman of our National Competition Council (NCC), in a
speech to the world bank early in 2000 urgently pressed the bank and developing nations to adopt a complex competitive market based health care model I was apoplectic and gave birth to a litter of criticisms most of which appeared on this web site. A large part of my working life in medicine had been spent in Africa. To highlight the absurdity of this for Australian readers I looked at the potential for such a competitive corporate marketplace for the dispersed bush residents of Australia and for its Aboriginal communities. Even Australia's most extreme economic ideologists had not suggested anything so ridiculous for them!

Published Papers

Building on Values: The Future of Health Care in Canada (pdf file)
This paper by Wendy Armstrong (from Canada) and myself examines the report of the Romanow Royal Commission into health care in Canada and draws implications for Australia. It was published in the March 2003 edition of the
Health Issues Journal. A pdf version of th paper is here.

Hazards in the Corporatisation of Health Care (pdf file)
A paper of mine "Hazards in the Corporatisation of Health Care" was published in the Autumn 2004 edition of "New Doctor" <
http://www.drs.org.au/>.. It is about corporate medicine in Australia and the Citigroup led purchase of Mayne hospitals.

Belief Versus Reality in Reforming Health Care (pdf file)
A paper "Belief Versus Reality in Reforming Health Care"contrasting for-profit with not-for-profit health care and the implications for Australia was published in the August 2005 edition of "
Health Issues".

Unpublished

Australia's Experience with Health Reform : Are there lessons for Canadians? (pdf file)
In 2004 I was asked to speak to an invited group at a meeting organised by the Consumers' Association of Canada (Alberta Chapter) and the Seniors' Action and Liaison Team (SALT). I prepared this as a background paper. The tittle was not really appropriate as the thrust of my argument was as much on the USA as on Australia. What I was trying to do was to link the dysfunction in health care to the prevailing ideology in the western world today and to suggest that health care was where the first steps could be taken towards a more balanced society.

 

THE CORPORATE INVASION OF AUSTRALIAN HEALTH CARE BY MULTINATIONALS FROM THE USA AND ELSEWHERE

That Ron Williams dire predictions have not come true may be largely due to the megacorps serious misconduct in the USA. Australian authorities and their political masters were repeatedly embarrassed when concerned citizens drew the major breeches of Australia's probity requirements to their attention and publicised corporate misconduct in Australia.
Links to the many pages describing their US conduct are given on the
US section of the site map. I give here only links to the central pages of the companies attempting to enter Australia, and to those sections dealing specifically with their time in Australia.

Tenet Healthcare & National Medical Enterprises
I first became aware of corporate misconduct when I started making inquiries about National Medical Enterprises' (NME but later renamed Tenet Healthcare) operations in Singapore where I had an unpleasant experience. I decided to take action. When NME entered Australia in December 1991 it was in the midst of a US scandal . It departed Australia in 1996 under a cloud after paying about $1 billion in fraud settlements in the USA.

  • Australia's Response to Tenet/NME - the story in Australia, told in a paper I published in 1996
  • Australia - a lack of frankness and candour - in a submission I made to Tenet's ethics committee
  • The Senate Statement - a statement made in the Australian senate describing Tenet/NME's departure and my role in this
  • Tenet/NME dispute - a summary of my dispute with NME and subsequent actions
  • Taking on National Medical Enterprises (NME) - A more detailed account of my battle with Tenet/NME written primarily for those interested in whistle blowing and its perils.
  • The Yeldham scandal - the story of the judge who was at risk of improper influence in 1993 when he assessed NME's compliance with NSW probity regulations. He overruled state authorities and allowed NME to operate in NSW. When he was exposed in 1996 he committed suicide.
  • REWARDS OF DEVIANCE : What will Happen? - Extract from my 1993 submission to Justice Yeldom in which I predict that because of the market and political pressures approval would be given in spite of NME's conduct.
  • Vista Healthcare - In 1997 some of Tenet/NME's international staff set up the international health care advisory group Vista Healthcare in Singapore. They advised other health care companies wishing to expand internationally. They quite possibly used their experience of our system to advise others who entered Australia. (e.g.. Sun Healthcare). Unbeknown to me they bought a hospital in Australia. They were acquired by BUPA.
  • Personal Experiences 1988-92 and Unnecessary Cardiac Procedures in 2002 - My early impressions of NME's Singapore hospital and the later allegations of unnecessary cardiac procedures in a California hospital in the second US scandal. The senior hospital administrator in Singapore became CEO of the Australian company in 1991. In 2002 he held a senior position in California where unnecessary surgery allegedly occurred. His documents were subpoenaed by a senate committee of inquiry. Might this have happened in Australia if Tenet Healthcare had stayed?

Generale de Sante Internationale (GSI)
GSI, the largest European hospital owner was one of the bidders for Tenet's Australian hospitals in 1995. I played a role with others in unearthing problems in their UK operations and publicising them. They dropped out of the bidding

Parkway Holdings, a Singapore and Malaysian group also bid for Tenet's hospitals, and was later tipped as a purchaser of Mayne Nickless. The Tan family businesses and other Malaysian groups had an interest in Alpha Healthcare and also in Gribble's Pathology.

Columbia/HCA (now renamed HCA)
In February 1997 Columbia/HCA, the largest hospital megacorp in the world announced plans to invest $1 billion in Australia. A scandal was breaking in the USA at the time. Together with others I gathered information and lodged objections with the Foreign Investment and Review Board (FIRB). When the FBI raided its hospitals in March 1997Columbia/HCA withdrew from Australia. This was the first step in the US $1.7 fraud scandal which engulfed the company. Pages describing this can be accessed from the
US part of the site map. "Implications of the entry of Columbia/HCA into Australia", the document describing their conduct at that time and attacking their entry into Australia was completed in March 1997 only the day before Columbia withdrew from Australia. Pages from it can still be accessed from Columbia/HCA's central page but it is dated. One section of this Corporate Medicine in Australia comments on the situation here in 1997 and a page entitled Mayne Nickless in Australia describes Mayne's similar business practices.

  • Corporate Medicine - I told you so -- By July 1997 there was much more information and the company admitted to the business practices and the internal pressures which led to the fraud. I used this information to boost my credibility in Australia, to draw parallels with Australian business and reaffirm the points I had been making.
  • Corporate Medicine - Hospital licenses -- In August 1997 Queensland was revising its hospital licensing regulations. I took the opportunity presented by Columbia/HCA's admissions to reinforce my 1996 objections to Mayne Nickless business practices by urging that these practices be prohibited in the new hospital regulations. I did not anticipate success!

Managed care - Aetna, was involved in some activity in New Zealand. The Australian AMA were energetically battling managed care in Australia and had the matter in hand. I did not get too involved in the internal politics. Kaiser was snooping around South Australia. There is some information about Aetna and Kaiser on the managed care pages I wrote in 2003. There is more about Kaiser on the 1997 "I told you so" page above and on a 1997 page of press clippings.

AXA
This French multinational insurer took control of Mutual health insurers in the southern states and privatised them. It joined with Mayne and the minister for health in attempting to introduce managed care style contracts in Australia. Hospitals succombed but doctors refused. Its Austraiian health insurance operations were later acquired by BUPA

Sun Healthcare
Sun Healthcare was a US aged care and step down care giant which had enjoyed meteoric growth in the USA. When it entered Australia in 1997 there were already serious concerns about fraud and about standards of care in its facilities. It bought into Alpha Healthcare in Australia and also a bought a number of hospitals from Moran Healthcare. The deceptive manner in which it was brought into Australia, and Dr. Wooldridge's role were of particular interest. Once again I collected information, lodged objections and pressed the issues. The main pages relevant to Australia can be accessed from Alpha Healthcare below. Sun sold its Australian holdings after it entered bankruptcy in the USA in 1999 - and in Australia.

Political Blindness
When Sun Healthcare entered Australia in 1997 I wrote a short piece pointing out that in each instance politicians had been supplied with vast amounts of information about multinationals entering Australia. No one could claim ignorance, yet despite repeated embarrassment they continued to bring in US multinationals.

Laboratory Companies -
SmithKline Beecham operated laboratories in the USA and Australia. In 1999 it sold all its laboratories to Quest Diagnostics. Quest was the laboratory arm of Corning which had recently been spun off as a separate company. Both SmithKline and Corning were central culprits in the fraud exposed by operation labscam in the 1990s. Hundreds of millions of dollars in fines were paid. An objection to Quest's entry to run laboratories in Australia was ignored.

HEALTHSOUTH entered Australia in 1997. It had enjoyed unprecedented success and dominated rehabilitation in the USA. It appeared to have an unblemished track record. Success in the competitive health care corporate marketplace is simply not achieved in this way. I was suspicious but could do nothing. In 2003 it was revealed that its success was built on a US $4 billion fraud which commenced soon after it was founded in 1986. The Australian subsidiary participated in one part of this fraud. Australian authorities have been kept fully informed since the scandal broke over a year ago but have taken no action to constrain the company or to warm the public.

Pharmacology giants -
Most of the multinational pharmaceutical giants operate in Australia. Many have been
involved in extensive fraud in the USA and internationally. In the pursuit of profits the industry has adopted a number of socially and humanitarian distasteful business practices. In Australia they have made every effort to undermine the successful PBS system and to push drug prices up using international trade agreements.

Vista Healthcare and its National Medical Enterprises (NME) Heritage
Vista Healthcare was formed in Singapore in 1996 by Chase Manhattan bank and the core of Tenet/NME's international division. It expanded rapidly across Asia. These people who had been pressured out of Australia in 1995, because of their conduct, very quietly bought back into Australian hospitals in 1999. BUPA bought Vista in 2001.(written in 2000 updated 2005)

Citigroup
After Sun Healthcare and the scan scam Dr. Wooldridge departed and there was a period of embarrassed freedom from healthcare multinationals. However when Mayne Nickless' hospitals were in trouble they sold internationally again in preference to a local consortium. Mayne hospitals were sold in 2003 to a group of venture capitalists led by CVC Asia Pacific. That this was a part of Citigroup was concealed from doctors and the Australian public but not internationally. A correspondent informed me. Citigroup was at the time embroiled as a central culprit in the massive Wall Street fraud scandals. Citigroup's US misconduct can be accessed from the
US section of the site map. (written 2004)

  •  Mayne Health becomes Affinity Health - This page describes the purchase of Mayne hospitals to form Affinity Health, the nature of venture capitalism, management buyouts, and the possible implications for health care in these hospitals.
  • The Companies Buying Mayne Health - This page describes the way in which the Australian press connived in hiding CVC Asia Pacific's relationship to Citigroup and also Citigroup's conduct from the market, the public and the medical profession. It goes on to examine each of the companies involved in the buyout and their links to larger groups. Only Citigroup have any experience in health care and that is extensive and profitable in the USA.

An article "Hazards in the Corporatisation of Health Care" which I wrote was published in New Doctor in March 2004 <available at http://www.drs.org.au/>. It summarises Australia's disturbing record with multinationals and describes the Citigroup purchase.

TRADE AGREEMENTS AND AUSTRALIA
It is clear that governments have adopted a policy of to corporatise health in Australia but have not had the political courage to express this publicly. US groups supported by their government have sought to
include health in world trade agreements and also in 2004 in bilateral trade agreements between Australia and the USA. In October 1999 the Australkain Doctor's Fund and the National Association of Practising Psychiatrists responded to pressures on the WTO process with press releases "NO NEED FOR AUSTRALIA TO JOIN INTERNATIONAL AGREEMENT ON HEALTH CARE SERVICES" and "What International Health Care Agreement Will Do For Sufferers Of Mental Illness".

 

Australian Hospital Companies

Enthusiasm for market medicine gripped Australia in the 1980's but there were early failures, followed by recovery in the early 1990s. Most of the 1990s were a difficult period. The market expected to reap large profits as a consequence of the strong support given to private insurance and privatised care by the coalition of liberal and national when it was elected in 1996. This did not eventuate until 2000 and during the 1990s only some companies made money.

Australian Hospital Companies

This web page discusses the background and the factors influencing the development of the competitive corporate hospital market in Australia. It briefly describes the story of the majority of companies that have operated hospitals for profit in Australia and links to pages decribing each in greater detail.

It examines the consequence of progressive consolidation of the market until only two large and very powerful corporations remained
(Written 10/2005)

 

 

 

 

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For the larger companies Mayne Health, Alpha Healthcare, Healthscope, and Ramsay Health Care see separate panels lower down.

The American Influence : HCA and AMI
The two US hospital multinationals, HCA and AMI operated in Australia between 1978 and 1991. While neither was successful they had a profound influence on political and business thinking. They laid the foundations for the corporatisation of health care in Australia.
(Written 10/2005 Last entry )

Ian McGoldrick & Companies : Consolidated Health Care (CHC), Health and Life Care (HLC), Superclinics, Supercare, & more
Following a string of failed surgical proceedures in the 1980s controversial Dr Ian McGoldrick was barred from practising medicine although this did not stop him from doing so. He was associated with two hospital companies during the 1980's that were each briefly the largest in Australia. He contributed to the demise of both and was involved in a string of other questionable corporate endeavours. Everything he touched turned to tears for those his charisma won over.
(Written 10/2005 Last entry )

Markalnga Trust & Australian Medical Enterprises (AME)
Markalinga Trust was founded by a group of investors and listed on the market in 1985. It overspent and was in trouble by 1991. The fraud plagued US company, National Medical Enterprises (NME), bought a controlling holding and it became Australian Medical Enterprises (AME). As the scandal in the USA unfolded NME's probity was challenged by concerned citizens. NME was forced out of Australia in 1996 after a complex saga in which authorities were repeatedly embarrassed.
(Written 10/2005 Last entry )

James Hardie & Health Care Corporation
James Hardie the large Australian multinational at the centre of the Asbestosis scandal became enthusiastic about profits from health in the 1980s investing in American Medical International, founding Health Care Corporation (HCC) and investing in health in the USA. It did not prosper and struggled to get out of health care selling HCC into Alpha Healthcare and then struggling to get out of Alpha without losing too much money.
(Written 10/2005 Last entry )

Australian Hospital Care
This page describes the steady rise of Australian Hospital Care (AHC) between 1979 and 1998 to become the second largest for profit hospital owner in Australia. Eighteen months after a very successful float in 1996 market pressures imposed their rigour on a company that believed the illusions of the ideology but did not understand its nature. Losses and miscalculations left it in a parlous state. It quickly succumbed to a takeover in 2000.
(Written 6/2005 Last entry 9/2005)

Moran Health Care : Hospitals
Moran Health Care is currently a private for profit operator of nursing homes. It has also invested enthusiastically in hospitals and was a strong advocate for private care with political connections. Doug Moran is best known for his failed Taj Mahal style medical parks targeting wealthy foreigners, but he had many other business interests in Australia and internationally.
(Written 10/2005 Last entry 10/2007)

Two other pages "The Nursing Home Empire" and "The Moran Family Story" are listed under the aged care section below

Benchmark Group
This page examines Benchmark, a private for profit hospital company owned and run by one man. It wanted to list on the stock market but never did electing instead to sell itself in 2004. It is an Australian example of a subgroup in the for profit system. Unlike publicly listed companies hospitals in this category sometimes work well but they are also at greater risk of abuse.
(Written 5/2005 Last entry 10/2005)

Nova Health
This page examines the upbeat claims made by this company Nova Health when it floated in 2002. The page documents its collapse, resuscitation and finally takeover by Healthscope in 2005.
(Written 5/2005 Last entry )

Insurers Owning Hospitals
During the 1980s and 1990s many medical insurers owned and operated hospitals. When a managed care system based on competition between hospitals for contracts with insurers was introduced this created an impossible conflict of interest. By the end of the 1990s they had all sold their hospitals.
(Written 10/2005 Last entry )

 Hospitals of Australia HOA)
Hospitals of Australia Trust was floated in 1986 and Mayne Nickless bought a 29% interest. Mayne increased its interest, took over management and in 1992 bought out other share holders forming HCoA. HOA had prospered and grown
(Written 10/2005 Last entry )

Affinity Health
When a group of venture capitalists led by CVC Asia Pacific, part of the fraud prone Citigroup, purchased Mayne's hospitals these were renamed Affinity Health. Eighteen months later the bulk of the hospitals were sold to Ramsay Health Care. Affinity kept 20 hospitals and still runs them in 2005.
(Written 1/2004 Last entry 8/2005)

OTHER SMALL HOSPITAL GROUPS
A number of smaller groups have operated over the years and this page looks at some of them. Only one or two still operate and the most successful is a doctor led group called Independent Private Hospitals of Australia.

Tom Wenkart and Macquarie Health
Tom Wenkart, a colleague of Goldridge and the infamous Edelsten founded Macquarie Health, a complex set of companies built around a large pathology business but including hospitals, medical clinics and a medical technology business. Like the other two doctors he indulged in unacceptable practices, ran into trouble with the tax office and became bankrupt..

For the larger companies Mayne Health, Alpha Healthcare, Healthscope, and Ramsay Health Care see below

 Mayne Nickless
Access Page
and its subsidiary Health Care of Australia (HCoA) which became Mayne Health

Until 2003 Mayne was by far the largest corporate owner of hospitals in Australia. It has been iat the centre of almost every health care controversy in Australia with the possible exception of the attempt to Americanise our healtrh system. Its conduct illustrates corporate behaviour - particularly behaviour under pressure.

This page provides links to the Mayne pages. It summarises the Mayne story describing how this wealthy trucking giant switched to hospitals when exposure of its unsavoury collusive practices and trucking fraud rendered trucking no longer profitable.

The story is told of its struggle to make a profit from hospitals and the ultimate revolt of doctors against its practices.

It eventually sold its hospitals to a consortium led by a Citigroup subsidiary and turned itself into a mainly pharmaceutical company.

It continued to perform poorly and in November 2005 broke up into a local company Simbion and an international company Mayne Pharma.

Citigroup is a US multinational financial conglomerate with a dreadful track record for deceiving its customers.
(Written 1997 Last entry 11/2005)

 

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Mayne Nickless 1886 to 1994 - The Early years
Mayne's story prior to the plea to collusive practices and fraud in 1994. The development of a culture of ruthlessness, fraud and dishonesty and the origin of its approach to health care.
(Written Nov 2001 Last entry Aug 2004)

The Collusion and Price Fixing Scandal
Mayne's behaviour leading up to the 1994 prosecution for collusive practices in trucking, its guilty plea, its fine, and its aggressive response
. (Written Nov 2001 Last entry Mar 2002)

The Dalziel and Catchlove Years 1995 to 2000
The decision to sell off trucking and other businesses and switch to health care as the company's main business and theatre for growth. The promise of profits which never materialised culminating in Catchlove and Dalziel's departures in 2000
(Written Nov 2001 Last entry Aug 2004)

  • Dalziel and Catchlove - References December 1995 to August 2000- references and extracts
  • Mayne Nickless in Australia - Part of the March 1997 criticism of Columbia/HCA's entry to Australia where I briefly review Mayne's conduct. (Web page now removed)
  • Governmant Appointments and Conflicts of interest - Conflicts of interest involving Mayne staff. Catchlove's relationship with Dr. Wooldridge, his appointment to chair the HIC and the involvement of both in the scan scam which finally discredited Wooldridge and ended his political career. (Written Jan 2002 Last entry Mar 2002)
  • Colocations and Privatisations in Australian States - Mayne was one of the strongest advocates and supporters of privatisation of public hospitals and of the colocation on public hospital campuses. It was involved in NSW, in West Australia, in Queensland, and in Tasmania
  • Mayne Nickless press reports - In 1998 Mayne working with the multinational insurer AXA and Dr. Wooldridge attempted to entice doctors into managed care contracts which would have given them a hold over doctors. Doctors refused and so were able to walk away when Smedley later cut back on care. I circulated a series of articles in order to help dissuade doctors. (Written 1998 Last entry Oct 1998)

Peter Smedley - The new Doctor on the Block
An analysis of Smedley, the corporate Mr. Fixit, and his business practices - what he brought to Mayne when he came from Colonial to replace Dalziel in 2000.
(Written Nov 2001 Last entry Aug 2004)

The Smedley years June 2000 to Dec 2001
The page describes the hope and surge in share prices as Smedley embarked on a program of marketplace restructuring, cost cutting, and rapid expansion by takeovers of hospital and drug companies. Doctors in contrast felt that care was being compromised and walked away from the hospitals causing financial collapse and Smedley's demise in 2002.
(Written Nov 2001 Last entry Aug 2004)

The Mayne Health Care Story
The page describes Mayne's foray into hospitals, its relationship with doctors and the issue of patient care versus profit.
(Written Mar 2002 Last entry Aug 2004)

MAYNE CRASHES : 2002 and 2003
This page describes how Smedley's character and policies brought Mayne to its knees and the role which the medical profession played in this. Mayne has now been broken up and seems to be continuing to fragment.
(Written Aug 2004)

Mayne Health becomes Affinity Health
The purchase of Mayne hospitals by a group of Venture Capitalist led by CVC Asia Pacific, a subsidiary of Citigroup, in a management buyout - an examination of this process and its implications.
It records the sale of Affinity hospitals in 2005 (Written Jan 2004 Last entry Oct 2005)

Affinity Health Hospital Licenses
This web page documents the difficulties Affinity Health had in securing licences for its hospitals in NSW and the implications of this for the takeover of the nursing home operator DCA in 2006.
(Written Sep 2006 Last entry Mar 2007)

The Companies Buying Mayne Health
An examination of what happened when these venture capitalists purchased Mayne hospitals and the hiding of information. A review of these companies and their past activities. .
(Written Jan 2004 Last entry Aug 2004)

Mayne Finally Breaks Up
This web page documents Mayne's inept management and steady decline during 2004 and 2005, and its break up into local and international companies in November 2005. It also documents the end of the tarnished Mayne name as a local operator although it still tarnishes the international operation. This new international drug company is seen as a likely takeover target.
(Written Nov 2005)

Mayne Diagnostics and General Practice
This web page briefly tells the story of Mayne's radiology, diagnostic laboratory and general practice businesses which generally underperformed competitors.
(Written Nov 2005)

Efforts to Restrict Mayne Nickless
A brief description of my own attempts over the years to curb Mayne Nickless and its practices. The two older pages below have