Private hospital group Life Healthcare said on Monday it had seen an increase in occupancy as lockdown restrictions eased.
Hospital occupancy in Southern Africa jumped from 39%, with no elective cases, under lockdown level five in April, to 61% currently, the company said in a business update for April to July 2020. “As SA appears to be coming out of the Covid-19 surge in August and with the introduction of the level 2 lockdown we expect to see an increased rate of return of elective cases,” the company said.The company said despite the monthly improvements, the aggregate revenue decreased about 22% and normalised earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation for the period fell 63% from the comparable period.
The group’s UK Alliance Medical Group had seen an improvement in operating performance since April with revenue increasing by about 5% in July from the previous year. Life Healthcare said it was in the process of increasing its committed bank facilities by R1.7bn, by mid-September. Those facilities were at R3bn by July 31 2020.switched to manual processing systems following a hacking attack.