Spire Healthcare makes variation to NHS contract

Independent hospital group Spire Healthcare agreed on terms with NHS England for a variation to their Covid-19 contract on Thursday.

Spire said the variation will allow it to undertake "a phased transition" back to normal business, by providing NHS elective care in order to reduce waiting lists and also increase private activity in its 35 hospitals across England.

The FTSE 250-listed firm said the most significant variation to the agreement was to guarantee that a certain minimum capacity in each hospital would be made available for privately funded patients.

In terms of recent trading, Spire added that revenues had risen roughly 3% in January and February but began to fall from the middle of March as Covid-19 began to take its toll on the UK.

Spire now expects to deliver first-half adjusted underlying earnings in the range of £13-18m and an adjusted pre-tax loss of £24-29m before impairments.

Chief executive Justin Ash said: "We are proud of the role that Spire Healthcare and all its teams and Consultant partners have played in supporting the NHS during the Covid pandemic by providing inpatient, outpatient and day-case services to over 100,000 NHS patients, including urgent cancer surgery, chemotherapy, cardiac surgery, diagnostics and imaging.

"Our hospitals are now seeing increasing confidence and demand from private patients. The variation in the NHSE Contract will help us to meet this demand, whilst playing a key part in reducing NHSE waiting lists"

As of 0935 BST, Spire shares were up 4.45% at 90.66p.