KPJ sees gradual recovery

Prospects of private healthcare seen promising

PETALING JAYA: KPJ Healthcare Bhd is seeing occupancy rates at its hospitals pick up and expects a gradual recovery of its patient numbers by year-end.

Speaking after the group’s AGM yesterday, KPJ president and managing director Ahmad Shahizam Mohd Shariff said the occupancy rate currently stands at 45%, rising from 31% in mid-may.

“The movement control order (MCO) has affected the occupancy rate at our hospitals, as we recorded our lowest ever at 27% in April.

“We expect the number of patients to increase in the second half of the year, but this will not normalise to 2019’s numbers or be a continuation of previous years’ trends.

“It is too early to tell how KPJ’S financial performance will be like in the second quarter, but it is something that we have to bear with because of the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic.

“In the medium to long term, the prospects of the private healthcare industry remain promising and we expect demand for private healthcare to continue,” he said.

KPJ had in a previous Bursa Malaysia filing, warned of a weaker second quarter as it anticipates a decline as a result of the MCO.

The MCO, which started on March 18 and ended on June 9, had significantly impacted KPJ’S operations due to the effects of the containment measures for the pandemic.

Ahmad noted that a majority of companies in the private healthcare sector will also not see strong numbers comparable to the previous year and it remains to be seen how quick the recovery will be.

As of June 2020, KPJ recorded 1.1 million outpatients, representing a 9.4% year-onyear decline.

The group’s inpatient numbers fell 21.2% to 118,000 patients compared to June 2019.

Ahmad expects KPJ’S outpatients to double to 2.2 million and a minimum of 200,000 inpatients by year-end.

“Our short term focus is to communicate with our patients and assure them that they are safe when they visit our hospitals, with the new standard operating procedures (SOPS) that we have put in place,” he said.

As for the group’s expansion plans, ongoing project works which had been halted during the MCO have since resumed in early May.

The completion of these projects, which include KPJ Damansara 2, as well as the relocation of KPJ Kuching and KPJ Kluang have been delayed to 2021.

Meanwhile, projects that have yet to commence or are at the early planning stage will be reviewed and re-sequenced accordingly.