Health-services provider Network Healthcare Holdings (Netcare) on Wednesday reported a 34,4% rise in fully diluted headline earnings per share to 58,6 cents per share for the year ended September 30 2005, from 43,6 cents a year ago.
The group declared a final capital distribution of 15 cents per share, which together with the interim distribution of 10 cents made a total distribution of 25 cents, from 19 cents a year earlier.
Cash generated from operations rose by 46,9% to R1,6-billion as revenue increased by 9,9% to R7,5-billion.
Netcare said the past year has recorded the lowest health-care inflation in more than a decade, while it achieved international ISO 9002 accreditation for certain hospital facilities.
A core focus during the year was enhancing and improving skills, training and employee satisfaction.
Netcare has expended substantial effort and cost at improving quality and service delivery across the organisation. To this end, HQS, an international accreditation agency affiliated to ISQua, has been contracted to accredit Netcare’s hospital facilities, with Sunninghill hospital in Johannesburg and Unitas hospital in Pretoria having already been accredited over the period.
In addition, the core health-care divisions have embarked on a countrywide programme to enhance clinical governance, patient safety and outcomes further throughout the group.
In the core hospital network, patient days were up by 2,2%, theatre cases rose by 1,8%, maternity cases increased by more than 5,9% and the length of stay declined marginally from 3,22 days to 3,20 days.
This result is due to increased utilisation by the currently insured population (admissions/1Â 000) and private uninsured patients, a net increase of more than 120 specialists joining Netcare hospitals, improved patient satisfaction indices, and benefits of infrastructural and strategic investments in high-performing facilities.
In addition, capital expenditure increased to R497,3-million from R362,3-million, as Netcare continued to expand and upgrade facilities within the hospital network, started the development of two new greenfield hospitals in the Western Cape and KwaZulu-Natal, and invested the initial capital expenditure relating to the introduction of the SAP software suite into the organisation.
The continued investment and development of allied health-care businesses, which provide a wide spectrum of administrative, logistical and support services to a range of health-care providers, have continued to contribute increasingly to revenue and profitability and provide Netcare with important avenues for future growth.
The Ophthalmic Chains Independent Sector Treatment Centres (ISTC), commissioned during January last year in the United Kingdom, continued to provide quality patient care and successfully treated more than 17Â 000 patients by September 30 2005 from its innovative mobile solution.
On May 9 2005, Netcare UK opened its second ISTC project, the Greater Manchester Surgical Centre. Netcare UK has undertaken to perform more than 44Â 800 procedures comprising orthopaedic, ear-nose-and-throat and general surgery over a five-year period within a high-volume elective surgery unit.
The change in revenue character from intermittent activity associated with waiting-list activities to annuity income from ISTC projects has resulted in a 42,7% increase in revenue, with initial operating performance being affected by start-up and diligence costs.
Over time, Netcare UK is poised to leverage operational activities to improve financial performance and is continuously seeking new opportunities for growth. — I-Net Bridge