About 700 patients have returned to Life Esidimeni
The company is trying to exit its Indian operation, where a hospital was closed on charges of negligence
About 700 patients have been returned to Life Healthcare’s Esidimeni psychiatric hospitals in Gauteng, out of 1‚711 mentally ill people who were removed by the Gauteng health department in 2016 — resulting in the deaths of at least 140. The DA says 28 patients remain unaccounted for. Life Healthcare said in its results for the six months to end-March, released on Friday morning, that this was one of the reasons for the 42% jump in revenue at its South African healthcare service division, to R568m. An acquisition of an occupational health and wellness business in October was another reason for the revenue surge. The group reduced the finance costs of its R10bn 2016 acquisition of UK diagnostic services group Alliance Medical by a third, to R488m from R713m, which helped it triple its net profit to R937m from R303m. Life Healthcare raised its interim dividend by 9%, to 38c from 35c. Alliance Medical’s contribution to the group’s interim revenue jumped by 56% to R2.3bn, from R1.5bn in ...
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