Private health firm 3fivetwo buys Sligo hospital

The Belfast-based healthcare business, 3fivetwo Group, is to buy a private hospital in the Republic of Ireland.

It has agreed to take over St Joseph's in Sligo, which has 19 beds and employs about 60 people.

St Joseph's Hospital Sligo Ltd's most recent accounts show KBC Bank appointed KPMG as share receiver in July 2014.

The 3fivetwo Group owns the Kingsbridge Private Hospital in south Belfast and a range of other businesses, including Origin Fertility Care.

St Joseph's is to be re-branded as Kingsbridge Private Hospital Sligo, and all jobs will be secured.

Mark Regan, 3fivetwo Group development director, said the purchase was good news for the company and for the north west in the Republic of Ireland.

Mark Towey, chief executive of St Joseph's, said the deal would provide "an opportunity to consolidate and expand".

The private hospital sector in the Republic of Ireland has experienced turbulence as a result of the economic downturn.

Fewer people have private health insurance and some hospitals were developed using large amounts of bank borrowing.

Several private hospitals have been sold and the Mount Carmel Hospital in Dublin, which was once in the same group as St Joseph's, closed in 2014.