The Welsh Government is facing the prospect of having to write-off a £10m equity investment it made into a cancer treating healthcare group which is seeking to put itself into liquidation.
Rutherford Health (formerly known as Proton Partners International) said it will make an application later this week to appoint an official receiver - an officer of the Insolvency Service - as liquidator. Its first private centre, and the first in the UK to use proton beam technology to treat cancer, opened in Newport in South Wales in 2016. Having invested more than £240m it also has cancer and diagnostic centres in Somerset, Northumberland, the Thames Valley and Liverpool.
Rutherford Group, which was seeking to raise new finance to secure its long-term future, said the pandemic had significantly reduced patient numbers. In a move to boost patient flow it had offering the NHS a not-for-profit UK-wide contract, in addition to existing local contracts. However, despite a good working relationship with the NHS in Wales, this was not taken up.
