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Private hospital group Netcare says its earnings for the six months ended 31 March 2022, increased between 8.5% and 9%.
Netcare was previously impacted by Covid-19, which resulted in fewer patients going to hospitals, but in its trading update on Tuesday, the hospital group said it saw an improvement in hospital visits. This was after the fourth wave of the pandemic, with a 62.4% average occupancy rate in February and March.
Although the emergence of the more contagious Omicron variant had an impact on the December 2021 and January 2022 occupancy rates, Netcare still experienced a 70% decline in Covid-19 patient days, compared to the six months ended 31 March 2022.
The group explained that towards the end of January, after the fourth wave, its hospitals began to see an uptick in activity and in March, it had the highest acute and mental health hospital stays since the pandemic began.
"Notwithstanding the dilutive impact of the lower occupancy levels in December 2021 and January 2022, full week occupancy levels within acute hospitals increased to 55.5% in H1 2022 from 53.8% in the comparative period, with average occupancy across February and March 2022 of 62.4%," Netcare said.
The hospital group added that its mental health facility occupancy levels rose from 60.6% in 2021, to 64.2% in 2022 and average occupancy rates in February and March were 78.8%.
Netcare incurred R112 million in operational costs for strategic projects, while its profit margins increased to 16.8% from the 15.8% in the first half of 2021.
"At 31 March 2022, the group had cash resources and available undrawn committed facilities of R3.4 billion," Netcare said.
As for the impact of the recent floods in KwaZulu-Natal, the hospital group said it is managing the power, water and oxygen supplies well.
Netcare’s share price saw a slight, 0.51% decline on Tuesday morning after it released the trading update.
