Outpatient department (OPD) footfall at healthcare major Apollo Hospitals has reached around 70 per cent of pre-Covid levels helped by easing of travel restrictions across the country and surge in non-Covid patient footfall across the network hospitals.

“As the impact of the pandemic wanes, the economy in general and the healthcare industry in particular is now gradually progressing towards normalcy. Recovery was evident in our performance in Q3FY21 which witnessed an ongoing uptick in patient footfall and occupancy across the network,” Suneeta Reddy, MD, Apollo Hospitals, said in a post-earnings call on Saturday.

Apollo Hospitals on Friday posted a standalone net profit of ₹106 crore for the third quarter of FY21. The net profit is marginally higher than ₹95 crore posted for the same quarter last year. On a sequential basis, however, the net profit for the latest quarter was significantly higher than ₹33 crore posted during Q2FY21.

“We saw substantial improvement in all metrics on a quarter-on-quarter (Q-o-Q) basis. Healthcare services revenue grew 17 per cent, surgical volumes went up by 64 per cent and overall IP (inpatient) volumes for the group increased by 21 per cent and occupancy improved to 63 per cent in Q3FY21 from 56 per cent in Q2,” Reddy said.

She also added that with reduction in the number of Covid patient footfall, the hospital also reduced the number of beds allocated for Covid care from 2,300 beds across the hospital network to 1,500 beds as of December 2020.

“In Q3FY21, Covid contributed 15 per cent of net revenues with 25 per cent share of occupied beds. Covid-related healthcare revenues have now began to taper off and it's been effectively substituted by non-Covid revenues,” Reddy said, adding, “However, since there has been limited resumption in airlines and rail traffic across the country, other State and international business continues to be affected especially on the OPD front.”

Of a capacity of 8,816 hospital-owned beds, 7,366 beds were operational with an occupancy of 63 per cent in Q3FY21 as against 56 per cent in the previous quarter.

“OP is around 65-70 per cent of normal levels. We expect that the progressive resumption of traffic will bring back older levels of volumes. We are also making additional efforts to strengthen our local market share,” Apollo Hospitals MD said.

The hospital chain’s standalone revenue from operations in the October-December quarter stood at ₹2,367 crore, declining 6 percent from ₹2,530 crore recorded in the year-ago quarter. Revenue from healthcare services de-grew by 4 per cent to ₹1,241 crore (₹1,297 crore) during Q3FY21. While revenue from existing hospitals de-grew by 8 per cent during the quarter, new hospital revenue grew by 7 per cent during the period.

“Healthcare services EBITDA was ₹229 crore for Q3FY21, which is 101 per cent higher than EBITDA of ₹114 crore in Q2FY21,” Reddy said, adding, “The comprehensive cost optimisation initiative taken in Q1FY21 is continued through this quarter as well and we recorded a savings of ₹40 crore.”

“As guided earlier, we expect to sustain a cost saving of ₹100-125 crore in FY22,” she added.

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