Expansion of the gastro business through a new clinic in Gothenburg

Global Health Partner has started a new gastro clinic in central Gothenburg and is thereby establishing its third specialist clinic for gastroenterology and endoscopy in Sweden. Gothenburg is a natural step in the expansion of Global Health Partner’s gastro business as there is only a small number of private care providers there, and with considerably lower capacity compared to Stockholm. The queues for gastroscopy and colonoscopy are in some cases also very long in Västra Götaland. “We see good opportunities for growth in Gothenburg and Västra Götaland and intend to build up a leading endoscopy clinic by starting Gastro Center Göteborg”, says Per Båtelson, Global Health Partner’s CEO.

The number of private care providers within gastroenterology is low and the capacity for performing endoscopic examinations is also limited in the Västra Götaland region. The queues for both colonoscopy and gastroscopy are today at least two months long at almost all the hospitals in the region. In Stockholm, which has a well developed gastroenterology and endoscopy service under private management, the waiting time for corresponding examinations is only two to three weeks. During January and February Västra Götaland carried out a tender process for a framework agreement within the colonoscopy area. Gastro Center Göteborg and Global Health Partner’s clinic in Lund, Gastro Center Skåne, are two of the three suppliers in the agreement. There are thus now several alternatives to the hospitals’ overloaded units and the patients can have shorter waiting times.

Gastro Center Göteborg is starting its business in newly built premises in Arkivgatan, a stone’s throw from Götaplatsen, in central Gothenburg. Besides serving as an overflow unit for queuing County Council patients, the clinic will act as a referral unit for insurance companies with different types of medical insurance and for specialist care referrals from other County Councils, and purely private patients will also be able to come to the clinic.

The clinic is a subsidiary of Stockholm Gastro Center, based in Sophiahemmet in Stockholm, and is initially being run mainly by personnel from the Stockholm clinic. Stockholm Gastro Center was started in 2008 by the gastro specialists Bengt Lavö and Robert Löfberg and is one of the country’s largest clinics within the field. During 2011 almost 10,000 endoscopic examinations were performed in the Stockholm clinic, which also runs specialist care within the area of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), an increasingly widespread general health problem which today affects approximately 1 percent of the population. Approximately 2,000 patients with IBD are today taken care of by Stockholm Gastro Center, which also conducts clinical research in this area.

Global Health Partner acquired Stockholm Gastro Center during 2010 and at the same time started one further clinic within gastroenterology in Skåne, Gastro Center Skåne, which, apart from an outpatients’ department for gastroenterology and endoscopic examinations, offers general surgical procedures, for example gallstone and hernia operations.

29 February 2012
Gothenburg, Sweden
Global Health Partner AB (publ)

Queries should be addressed to:
Per Båtelson, CEO, phone: +46 705 95 57 00
Tobias Linebäck, CFO and Head of Investor Relations, phone: +46 708 55 37 19

Global Health Partner is an internationally active healthcare provider that operates specialist clinics in a select number of treatment areas through the application of a business model that is unique in the healthcare industry, where leading doctors become partners and shareholders. Multiple clinics with high patient volumes within the same area of treatment produce increased efficiency and higher quality, which is the cornerstone of Global Health Partner's business philosophy – ”Quality through Specialisation”. Global Health Partner’s shares are traded on the Small Cap list at NASDAQ OMX Stockholm under the abbreviation “GHP.”

Global Health Partner AB (publ) | www.globalhealthpartner.com
Corp. ID No. 556757-1103 | Östra Hamngatan 26-28 | SE-411 09 Gothenburg | Sweden
Tel 46-31 712 53 00 | Fax 46-31 313 13 21

This is a translation of the Swedish version of the press release. When in doubt, the Swedish wording prevails.

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