After a fall, occupancy at Apollo Hospitals see rapid rise

Apollo Hospitals has said that occupancy levels have increased to around 60 per cent in September, from 38 per cent in June.

The hospital chain added that it has taken various costsaving measures, which will help the company save around ~200 crore during the current year.

During an investor call on Tuesday, Suneeta Reddy, managing director (MD), Apollo Hospitals Group, said the last six months have been one of the most challenging in the history of Apollo.

Outpatient volumes were impacted and there was also a significant drop in surgical volumes. This was due to the lockdown and fear of infection among people.

On a consolidated basis, revenue from operations de-grew 16 per cent to ~2,172 crore for the April-june quarter, against ~2,572 crore in the same period last year. The company posted a net loss of ~226 crore for the April-june quarter, against a net profit of ~49 crore in the same quarter of the previous year.

“Trends are looking much better and we expect the company to turn green by the end of the year from red,” she said, adding that over the past few months, things have started showing improvement as the country started opening up and people’s movement started.

Occupancy rate rose to around 60 per cent, from 55 per cent in August. It was 47 per cent in July and 38 per cent in June. She added that international patients have also started coming from neighbouring countries and Apollo is working with few chartered flight providers for travel.