The Priory Group is a provider of mental health care facilities in the United Kingdom. The group operates at more than 500 sites with over 7,000 beds. Its flagship hospital is the Priory Hospital, Roehampton, [1] which is best known for treating celebrities [2] particularly for drug addiction. [3] The Priory Group also manages schools, some for students with autism spectrum disorders through Priory Education and Children’s Services. Some of its facilities are run by its subsidiary Partnerships in Care. In January 2019 it opened its first overseas school in partnership with the Abu Dhabi Department of Education and Knowledge. [4]
In 1980 the Priory Hospital in Roehampton was acquired by Community Psychiatric, an American healthcare company, [5] and became the first clinic in what was to become the Priory Group. [6]
The Priory Group was the subject of a management buyout, funded by Mercury Asset Management and several banks, in 1994. [6]
In 2000 Westminster Healthcare Group (a company owned by Dr Chai Patel) acquired Priory Hospitals from the management team and from Mercury Asset Management for £96 million. [7]
In 2002, the company was the subject of another management buyout, this time led by Doughty Hanson & Co, for £289 million. [8] The company was divested to ABN AMRO (later acquired by the Royal Bank of Scotland Group) in July 2005 for £875 million, netting the five company directors over £50 million. [9]
Advent International took control for an aggregate consideration of £925 million in 2011. [10]
In October 2014, former Chief Executive, Tom Riall announced that the group was planning a significant expansion into the mental health community services market and would bid in partnership with “incumbent” NHS providers, an approach that would allow them to come up with new models of care. Anticipating more services to be put out to tender by Clinical commissioning groups, he noted that Priory could contribute "considerable commercial bidding expertise” and become the “overflow provider of choice” for the NHS. [11]
Acadia Healthcare bought the business for £1.3 billion in January 2016 [12] and sold it to Waterland Private Equity for £1.1 billion in January 2021. Waterland plans to join it with MEDIAN of Germany "to create Europe’s leading rehabilitation and mental health services provider", especially in neurology and other post-acute services. [13]
A 2023 British Medical Journal research paper found that healthcare provided by private equity-backed companies like the Priory Group was often more expensive and had “mixed to harmful impacts on quality”. [14] [15]
In 2022, the Care Quality Commission identified that Priory hospitals faced criticism over the care related to at least 30 patient fatalities. [16]
After the suicide of a 14-year old girl, Amy El-Keria, funded by the NHS, at the group’s Ticehurst House hospital in East Sussex in 2012, a prosecution was brought by the Health and Safety Executive. The company pleaded guilty to a charge of being an employer failing to discharge its duty to ensure people were not exposed to risk. It faced a fine of at least £2.4 million. The inquest jury found that the staff had failed to dial 999 quickly enough, had failed to call a doctor promptly and were not trained in CPR. [17]
Its hospital in High Wycombe, a 12-bed low-security unit for young people with learning disabilities or autism, which opened in April 2018 was closed in February 2019 after the Care Quality Commission rated it inadequate and said the staff lacked appropriate experience and skills. The company said that it could not recruit "an experienced, settled team of core nursing and clinical staff.” [18] The CQC rated three units run by Priory Group inadequate. [19]
Two of its hospitals, Kneesworth House in Hertfordshire and Priory Hospital Blandford, were rated “inadequate” by the Care Quality Commission in July 2019. Admissions to Priory Hospital were suspended “until further notice”. The greatest problems at Kneesworth house were on the forensic wards. [20] Ellingham Hospital, in Attleborough was rated inadequate in November 2019. According to Priory “the fundamental issue . . . was structural: there are simply not enough skilled staff in the region to meet the highly specialised needs of the young people at Ellingham”. 88.2% of its 93 mental healthcare facilities in the UK have received the equivalent of good or better ratings. [21]
In October 2021, several safety problems and incompetences of hospital staff at the Priory Hospital Kneesworth in Hertfordshire were reported by an undercover journalist in the documentary "Secure Hospital Uncovered (Exposure)" on ITV. [22] [23] [24]
St John’s House near Diss in Suffolk, a 49-bed hospital for adults living with learning disabilities and associated mental health issues was put in special measures in March 2021 after the Care Quality Commission rated it inadequate and accused staff of failing to ensure patients’ safety or dignity. [25]
In November 2023, Priory was found responsible for two fundamental causes and 29 contributory factors of the death of a patient at Priory Hospital Woodbourne in Birmingham. At the inquest, the jury found that the death was "contributed to by neglect" by Priory and a prevention of future death report was issued by the coroner. [26]
In November 2023, Priory Hospital Roehampton received a £140k fine due to inadequate patient safety measures, which was highlighted following a woman's death under their care. [27]
Rampton Secure Hospital is a high-security psychiatric hospital near the village of Woodbeck between Retford and Rampton in Nottinghamshire, England. It is one of three high-security psychiatric hospitals in England, alongside Ashworth Hospital in Merseyside and Broadmoor Hospital in Berkshire. It is managed by Nottinghamshire Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust.
Netcare Limited is a South African private healthcare company. It operates through a number of subsidiaries and employs just over 21 000 people.
Salford Royal NHS Foundation Trust operated Salford Royal Hospital in Greater Manchester until 2017. Its chief executive is Dr Owen Williams.
Health and Social Care is the publicly funded healthcare system in Northern Ireland. Although having been created separately to the National Health Service (NHS), it is nonetheless considered a part of the overall national health service in the United Kingdom. The Northern Ireland Executive through its Department of Health is responsible for its funding, while the Public Health Agency is the executive agency responsible for the provision of public health and social care services across Northern Ireland. It is free of charge to all citizens of Northern Ireland and the rest of the United Kingdom.
The Huntercombe Group is a specialist health provider in the United Kingdom specialising in the Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS), Adult Mental Health, Brain Injury Rehabilitation and Neurological Care Centre, Adult Learning Disability and Children's Complex Needs. It operates 12 hospitals and specialist centres located throughout England and Scotland.
The National Health Service (NHS) is the publicly funded healthcare system in England, and one of the four National Health Service systems in the United Kingdom. It is the second largest single-payer healthcare system in the world after the Brazilian Sistema Único de Saúde. Primarily funded by the government from general taxation, and overseen by the Department of Health and Social Care, the NHS provides healthcare to all legal English residents and residents from other regions of the UK, with most services free at the point of use for most people. The NHS also conducts research through the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR).
The Care Quality Commission (CQC) is an executive non-departmental public body of the Department of Health and Social Care of the United Kingdom. It was established in 2009 to regulate and inspect health and social care providers in England.
The National Health Service (NHS) is the umbrella term for the publicly funded healthcare systems of the United Kingdom, comprising the NHS in England, NHS Scotland and NHS Wales. Health and Social Care in Northern Ireland was created separately and is often locally referred to as "the NHS". The original three systems were established in 1948 as part of major social reforms following the Second World War. The founding principles were that services should be comprehensive, universal and free at the point of delivery—a health service based on clinical need, not ability to pay. Each service provides a comprehensive range of health services, provided without charge for people ordinarily resident in the United Kingdom apart from dental treatment and optical care. In England, NHS patients have to pay prescription charges; some, such as those aged over 60, or those on certain state benefits, are exempt.
Care UK is a provider of residential care for older people. They operate more than 150 homes offering residential care, dementia care, and nursing care. The company formerly also operated a wider range of healthcare services until 2019 when these were split off to Practice Plus Group, private-equity firm Bridgepoint Group retaining ultimate control over both companies.
Circle Health Group is a private healthcare provider in the United Kingdom, and is the country's biggest private hospital provider. The company was founded in 2004 and rebranded as Circle Health Group in 2019 after acquiring a rival, BMI Healthcare; in the same year it began an expansion in China. In 2023 the company was acquired by an Abu Dhabi-based holding company called PureHealth.
The Priory Hospital, Roehampton, often referred to as The Priory, is a private mental health hospital in South West London. It was founded in 1872 and is now part of the Priory Group, which was acquired in 2011 by an American private equity firm, Advent International.
Norfolk and Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust (NSFT) is a large mental health trust and an NHS Foundation Trust. It runs services in Norfolk and Suffolk, England, chiefly at Hellesdon Hospital, Norvic and Julian Hospital in Norwich, Northgate in Great Yarmouth, and Carlton Court in Lowestoft
Cygnet Health Care is an independent provider of health and social care services for young people and adults with mental health needs, acquired brain injuries, eating disorders, autism and learning disabilities within the UK.
Ramsay Health Care UK is a healthcare company based in the United Kingdom. It was founded by Australian businessman Paul Ramsay, who established its parent company: Ramsay Health Care, in Sydney, Australia, in 1964 and has grown to become a global hospital group operating 151 hospitals and day surgery facilities across Australia, the United Kingdom, France, Indonesia and Malaysia.
Private healthcare in the UK, where universal state-funded healthcare is provided by the National Health Service, is a niche market.
Partnerships in Care is a British provider of mental health and social care services.
Elysium Healthcare is a private provider of mental health services based in Borehamwood, UK. It was launched in December 2016 and combined sites from the portfolio of Partnerships in Care and The Priory Group when they were sold by Acadia Healthcare. It was owned by BC Partners. In October 2020 Elysium hired JP Morgan to advise on the sale of the business. The price tag was estimated to be circa £900 million. In December 2021 Ramsay Health Care UK bought the company for £775 million.
Servelec is a health informatics company based in Sheffield and owned by The Access Group. It supplies software to the healthcare, social care and education sectors.
The private provision of NHS services has been considered a controversial topic since the early 1990s. Keep Our NHS Public, NHS Support Federation and other groups have campaigned against the threat of privatisation, largely in England.
ASC Healthcare is a mental health service provider based in Bolton, Greater Manchester. It runs the Breightmet Centre, an autism treatment centre in Bolton, which opened in 2013. Additionally, for a short period, it also ran a small hospital called Mayfield Court in Whalley Range, which was used for short term placements of mental health patients. In 2019 ASC Healthcare proposed a similar acute crisis unit for mental health patients in Blackburn be opened.
{{cite news}}
: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)