Four Seasons Health Care
Encyclopedia
Health care
Health care is the diagnosis, treatment, and prevention of disease, illness, injury, and other physical and mental impairments in humans. Health care is delivered by practitioners in medicine, chiropractic, dentistry, nursing, pharmacy, allied health, and other care providers...
and social care services and it owns or operates 440 care homes, nursing home
Nursing home
A nursing home, convalescent home, skilled nursing unit , care home, rest home, or old people's home provides a type of care of residents: it is a place of residence for people who require constant nursing care and have significant deficiencies with activities of daily living...
s and other specialist units across the United Kingdom
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
. Four Seasons employs over 21,000 staff and cares for more than 15,000 people. Four Seasons also owns The Huntercombe Group
The Huntercombe Group
The Huntercombe Group is an independent specialist care provider in the United Kingdom, with hospitals and centres providing treatment in the areas of mental health, acquired traumatic brain injury and neurological nonditions, learning disabilities, and children with special needs.The Huntercombe...
, providing specialist care under this title. Four Seasons, as it is today, was created by buying out smaller chains of care homes and re-branding them as evidenced by the takeovers of Tamaris (formerly Quality Care Homes) and Bettercare.
Up until 1997 Four Seasons was a small operator working only in Scotland
Scotland
Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...
. The fortunes of the business were changed with the appointment of Hamilton Anstead as Chief Executive Officer. There followed a rapid expansion programme for the business which transformed it within 7 years into the largest care home operator in the UK (it was subsequently overtaken). The business was attractive to many suitors and as a result it was sold for £775 million in 2004. Anstead ceased to be CEO in 2005.
The company was acquired in 2006 by Three Delta LLP, the investment fund backed by the state of Qatar
Qatar
Qatar , also known as the State of Qatar or locally Dawlat Qaṭar, is a sovereign Arab state, located in the Middle East, occupying the small Qatar Peninsula on the northeasterly coast of the much larger Arabian Peninsula. Its sole land border is with Saudi Arabia to the south, with the rest of its...
, and further expanded. The acquisition was funded by debt which was readily available in a market where investors saw rising property prices and continuing demand for care for the elderly, much of it paid for by the public sector
Public sector
The public sector, sometimes referred to as the state sector, is a part of the state that deals with either the production, delivery and allocation of goods and services by and for the government or its citizens, whether national, regional or local/municipal.Examples of public sector activity range...
. However, the company was unable to pay its debts and with a downturn in the property markets was unable to refinance and the owners walked away, losing their investment.
Dr. Peter Calveley was appointed CEO in 2007 and his senior management team were left to resolve debt
Debt
A debt is an obligation owed by one party to a second party, the creditor; usually this refers to assets granted by the creditor to the debtor, but the term can also be used metaphorically to cover moral obligations and other interactions not based on economic value.A debt is created when a...
s of circa £1.5 billion as a result of borrowings by its owners to buy the homes.
The Group completed a financial restructuring in December 2009, with lenders – banks and other financial institutions – agreeing to swap about £780 million debt for equity in the business, so becoming its new shareholder
Shareholder
A shareholder or stockholder is an individual or institution that legally owns one or more shares of stock in a public or private corporation. Shareholders own the stock, but not the corporation itself ....
s. Maturity of the remaining debt has been extended to September 2012. It is currently reviewing options for permanent resolution of the remaining debt. The debt and equity holders are supportive and the Group is confident this will be achieved next year before the maturity date. Four Seasons is now trading profitably. Under Calveley’s leadership the quality of care performance has changed from below sector average, to having 89% of its homes rated as good or excellent by the Care Quality Commission
Care Quality Commission
The Care Quality Commission is a non-departmental public body of the United Kingdom government established in 2009 to regulate and inspect health and social care services in England. This includes services provided by the NHS, local authorities, private companies and voluntary organisations -...
.
This turnaround in quality has helped to drive up occupancy to levels of circa 88%. Another factor in the Group’s performance is Calveley’s strategy of anticipating market changes in order to provide specialist care. Four Seasons has 80% nursing or high dependency beds and 20% residential in contrast to the sector average of 55% residential. It has developed services for people who are physically frail or suffering from the onset of dementia
Dementia
Dementia is a serious loss of cognitive ability in a previously unimpaired person, beyond what might be expected from normal aging...
, chronic neurological conditions, respite care
Respite care
Respite care is the provision of short-term, temporary relief to those who are caring for family members who might otherwise require permanent placement in a facility outside the home....
, intermediate care and rehabilitation, terminal care. Because there are few readily available alternatives for high dependency care – such as care provision at home – the market for higher dependency care is more resilient than the market for residential care.
the Group had achieved substantial expansion without new borrowings, by acquiring the operations of Care Principles with 17 hospitals and homes – nearly doubling the size of FSHC’s specialist care business and 1,000 additional care home places (c. 6% growth) through acquisitions over the preceding year from Craegmoor and Eton Square Healthcare.
the group was expected to acquire over 100 care homes from the collapsed provider Southern Cross, which would make it the largest provider in the UK. These include 54 owned by Loyd's Property.