Advanced Health seeks BEE partner

ADVANCED Health, the struggling day clinic operator, yesterday said it was looking at bringing in a black empowerment partner in the current financial year as the company sets its sights on turning the corner.

Carl Grillenberger, the chief executive of Advanced Health, said the company felt the time was right to engage in talks of bringing in an empowerment partner and that he hoped a BEE structure would be in place within the next six months.

“We started looking at involving a BEE partner last year, but we called off talks as we wanted to first focus on the company’s expansion and marketing our facilities. But we are now in the position to open discussions again to bring in a BEE partner. This will be good for our image as a South African company,” Grillenberger said.

The group’s loss after taxation in the six months ended December remained flat at R22.6 million. Advanced reported that its headline loss per share narrowed by 18.7 percent to 8.56 cents in the period, from 10.52c in the comparable period.

However, the company’s turnover in the period under review climbed to R199.5m to R149.7m on account of an increase in patient numbers and the opening of two more facilities in Australia.

The group also reported a 35 percent improvement in patient numbers. The company’s Australian subsidiary Presmed contributed 74 percent to revenue.

Grillenberger said the results were not what the group expected but were still an improvement compared to the previous reporting period.

“Support in our segment of the healthcare sector is not where we would like it to be. We still need further support to get more doctors on board. The problem is that doctors are nervous, because there is pressure put on them by hospitals to do more work for them rather than on daily care centres,” Grillenberger said.

“We have involved the Competition Commission strongly on this and the Health Market Inquiry would soon complete its work. We are hoping that the outcomes of the inquiry will level the playing field.”

The health-market inquiry, which is expected to present its report next month, had put a sharp focus on the role that private hospitals play in driving up healthcare costs.