RMG benefits from early investment in healthcare app; H1 net profit falls 38.2%

Singapore

RAFFLES Medical Group's early investment in its digital healthcare platform, RafflesConnect, has allowed its hospitals and clinics here to integrate offline and online services to better serve patients amid the Covid-19 pandemic.

Despite more patients accepting telemedicine as a new, convenient way of accessing healthcare, it will not be able to substitute the clinic and hospital business as some symptoms may still require patients to follow-up with a doctor's appointment, said Raffles Medical Group executive chairman, Loo Choon Yong at a media briefing on Monday.

The group's focus was therefore never on telemedicine "on its own", but rather on the "patient's journey" by providing a seamless experience through an integrated platform, said Jessica Tan, group commercial director of Raffles Medical Group.

For instance, patients who had safety concerns about spending extended periods of time at clinics were able to reduce their waiting time thanks to the eQueue feature on the RafflesConnect app.

eQueue, first introduced in December last year, streamlines the patient registration process and provides waiting time estimates for them to better plan and manage their trips to the clinics.

The private healthcare provider said in its results announcement on Monday that it will continue to develop and invest in RafflesConnect, "to provide enhanced access to services, improve customer experience and offer up-to-date authoritative medical information".

Raffles Medical posted a 38.2 per cent drop in net profit to S$17.2 million for the first half ended June 30, 2020, from S$27.9 million a year ago, as revenue from deferment of elective surgeries and fewer foreign patients took a hit amid Covid-19 safety measures.

Earnings per share stood at 0.94 Singapore cent for the half year versus 1.55 cents a year ago. Barring unforeseen circumstances, the group said it expects to remain profitable for the rest of year.

Revenue fell 5.4 per cent to S$241.4 million from S$255.3 million a year ago, dragged by a 14.5 per cent fall in revenue from its hospital services division to S$126.6 million.

This comes as elective surgeries were deferred and foreign patients were barred from coming to seek treatment when Singapore closed its borders to contain the spread of the novel coronavirus.

In China, Raffles Hospital Chongqing and its clinics had to operate with a "significantly smaller patient load" amid movement restrictions for much of the first half of the year, said the group.

However, revenue for healthcare services grew 6.8 per cent to S$124.6 million, boosted by areas in telemedicine, air-border screening, swabbing of foreign workers and medical care provided to the government's Changi Exhibition Centre community care facility for Covid-19 positive cases.

An interim cash dividend of 0.5 Singapore cent per share was declared for the half year, unchanged from a year ago. The date payable and the record date for the dividend will be announced at a later date.

As Singapore, China and countries across the region begin to ease virus safety measures, the group said it is starting to see patients return to its hospitals - including Raffles Hospital Chongqing and all its network clinics across the region.

Meanwhile, expansion plans in China are underway. Raffles Medical is in the process of completing renovation for its 54,000-square-foot medical centre at the Beijing International Clinic that is slated to open in the second half of 2020. It will offer "minimally invasive surgeries" to complement existing clinical services there.

The group added that preparations are on track for the opening of Raffles Hospital Shanghai, with fitting-out works and recruitment in progress. The actual date for commencement of operations, however, will depend on Shanghai's return to normalcy.

Shares of Raffles Medical closed at S$0.92 on Monday, up half a Singapore cent or 0.5 per cent.