Ramsay pledges to help with public system wait times globally
Ramsay Health Care boss Craig McNally says the $15 billion private hospital operator will work with governments across the world to offer its services to reduce public hospital wait times amid the COVID-19 recovery.
Mr McNally told investors in an address to the company’s annual general meeting on Tuesday this cooperation could be in place for several years and boost patient volumes across Ramsay’s networks.
“We believe these opportunities could deliver additional volumes over several years as the world gradually learns to live with the virus and hopefully in time a vaccine becomes widely available,” he said.
Earlier this month Ramsay warned investors it could not give earnings guidance and was facing “volatile” conditions as Australia returned to “COVID-normal”, while the company’s European and British operations grappled with second waves of the virus.
The company has inked a range of viability agreements with the UK’s National Health Service (NHS), the French government and Australian state governments throughout 2020 to help support the public systems in the fight against COVID-19.
Across France, Italy and Sweden, Ramsay has treated more than 7000 COVID-19 cases.
In the UK, Mr McNally said there had been a slow rebound in surgery volumes as well as “an increase in demand for other services such as oncology flowing from the public system”.
“We continue to be in discussion with the NHS and the UK government about both short and long-term opportunities to assist with the public hospital wait list,” he said.
Shares in the company opened up 1.5 per cent ahead of the 10:30am meeting, to $66.32.
More to come
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Emma reports on healthcare companies for The Age and Sydney Morning Herald. She is based in Melbourne.
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