Burnside Hospital grows for future with acquisition of Sportsmed Hospital

11 July 2023

Burnside War Memorial Hospital is pleased to advise that it has entered into an agreement to acquire the Sportsmed Hospital business at Stepney.

The acquisition will see the rebranding of the site to create Burnside Hospital Stepney, effectively doubling Burnside Hospital’s current capabilities from five operating theatres to 10 and from 76 to 125 beds.

The 100% acquisition of the business includes the headlease on the Stepney premises and will come into effect on 1 September following the successful conclusion of due diligence. 

“We have been a proud part of the eastern suburbs community for more than 65 years, always investing in our facilities and our people to provide the best levels of care to patients and their families,” Burnside War Memorial Hospital CEO Alan Morrison said.

“As part of that duty of care, we are continually looking for ways to strengthen our business and improve our offering to ensure we can keep meeting the needs of our community.

“To do this, we need more capacity. All our theatres are fully utilised, and we are not able to meet current demand from surgeons and their patients, particularly in orthopaedics. That’s why we have been looking for a hospital with the ability to help us grow. 

“Sportsmed Hospital is an outstanding facility with highly skilled teams and its additional capacity will help us meet demand for services.”

All clinical staff will retain their current roles and both hospitals will continue to service their current theatre lists, with spare capacity at Stepney being utilised to meet unmet demand from Burnside.

Like Burnside War Memorial Hospital, Burnside Hospital Stepney will be run as a not-for-profit community hospital and both will share the same patient-first ethos.

“The spare capacity within the Stepney facility will help us meet unmet demand for services,” Alan said.

“Looking ahead, the scale of our combined operations and the growth we anticipate at Burnside Hospital Stepney will unlock more opportunities at both sites and give us more capability in terms of our future business strategy.

“This is an exciting time. We are building on 65 years of history to create a stronger and more capable hospital service across two sites with one shared commitment – to care for our community.” 

The value of the acquisition is not being disclosed. For clarity, the acquisition of Sportsmed Hospital does not include the broader Sportsmed healthcare businesses.