Netcare (officially Netcare Group Limited) is a South African

private Private or privates may refer to: Music * "In Private", by Dusty Springfield from the 1990 album ''Reputation'' * Private (band), a Denmark-based band * "Private" (Ryōko Hirosue song), from the 1999 album ''Private'', written and also recorded ...

healthcare Health care, or healthcare, is the improvement or maintenance of health via the preventive healthcare, prevention, diagnosis, therapy, treatment, wikt:amelioration, amelioration or cure of disease, illness, injury, and other disability, physic ...

company. The group provides a range of

medical Medicine is the science and Praxis (process), practice of caring for patients, managing the Medical diagnosis, diagnosis, prognosis, Preventive medicine, prevention, therapy, treatment, Palliative care, palliation of their injury or disease, ...

services across the healthcare spectrum, and operates South Africa’s largest network of private

hospitals A hospital is a healthcare institution providing patient treatment with specialized health science and auxiliary healthcare staff and medical equipment. The best-known type of hospital is the general hospital, which typically has an emergency ...

. The company also provides

emergency medical services Emergency medical services (EMS), also known as ambulance services, pre-hospital care or paramedic services, are emergency services that provide urgent pre-hospital treatment and stabilisation for serious illness and injuries and transport to d ...

(including through its 082 911 emergency line and Netcare app),

primary healthcare Primary health care (PHC) is a whole-of-society approach to effectively organise and strengthen national health systems to bring services for health and wellbeing closer to communities. Primary health care enables health systems to support a p ...

renal dialysis Kidney dialysis is the process of removing excess water, solutes, and toxins from the blood in people whose kidneys can no longer perform these functions naturally. Along with kidney transplantation, it is a type of renal replacement therapy. ...

maternity A mother is the female parent of a child. A woman may be considered a mother by virtue of having given birth, by raising a child who may or may not be her biological offspring, or by supplying her ovum for fertilisation in the case of gestatio ...

care, prepaid health cover, gap cover (medical cost shortfall insurance), and

mental health Mental health is often mistakenly equated with the absence of mental illness. However, mental health refers to a person's overall emotional, psychological, and social well-being. It influences how individuals think, feel, and behave, and how t ...

services.

History

Netcare was established in 1996, and was listed on the

JSE Limited JSE Limited (previously the JSE Securities Exchange and the Johannesburg Stock Exchange) is the largest stock exchange in Africa. It is located in Sandton, Johannesburg, South Africa, after it moved from downtown Johannesburg in 2000. In 2003 ...

(Johannesburg Stock Exchange) the same year. The company expanded into the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Northwestern Europe, off the coast of European mainland, the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...

in 2001. In 2002 it won The Ophthalmic Chain contract in

Kent Kent is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South East England. It is bordered by Essex across the Thames Estuary to the north, the Strait of Dover to the south-east, East Sussex to the south-west, Surrey to the west, and Gr ...

Merseyside Merseyside ( ) is a ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial and metropolitan county in North West England. It borders Lancashire to the north, Greater Manchester to the east, Cheshire to the south, the Wales, Welsh county of Flintshire across ...

Cumbria Cumbria ( ) is a ceremonial county in North West England. It borders the Scottish council areas of Dumfries and Galloway and Scottish Borders to the north, Northumberland and County Durham to the east, North Yorkshire to the south-east, Lancash ...

Lancashire Lancashire ( , ; abbreviated ''Lancs'') is a ceremonial county in North West England. It is bordered by Cumbria to the north, North Yorkshire and West Yorkshire to the east, Greater Manchester and Merseyside to the south, and the Irish Sea to ...

Hampshire Hampshire (, ; abbreviated to Hants.) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South East England. It is bordered by Berkshire to the north, Surrey and West Sussex to the east, the Isle of Wight across the Solent to the south, ...

, and

Thames Valley The Thames Valley is an area in South East England that extends along the River Thames west of London towards Oxford. The area is a major tourist destination and economic hub on the M4 corridor, with a high concentration of technology companies ...

, to carry out 44,500 cataract removals over a 5-year period and the £2.5bn contract for the Greater Manchester Surgical Centre, a 48-bed facility at

Trafford General Hospital Trafford General Hospital is a district general hospital in Davyhulme, Greater Manchester, England, managed by Manchester University NHS Foundation Trust. History Early history Work began on what was originally named Davyhulme Park Hospital, ...

to provide 44,863 elective procedures over 5 years with a diagnostics programme valued at £1bn. In 2004 it signed a contract to carry out 41,600 cataract operations for the NHS at sites throughout the UK including Cumberland Infirmary. The company acquired a controlling stake in

General Healthcare Group General Healthcare Group PLC (GHG) is a British healthcare company. It owns BMI Healthcare. BMI operates 54 hospitals and clinics in the United Kingdom. History The name "General Healthcare Group" dates to 1993, when AMI, a US for-profit hosp ...

, the UK's largest private hospital group with 50 hospitals, in 2006 for £2.2 billion. This brought Netcare's total number of hospitals to 120 with over 11,000 beds, 510 operating theatres, and 37 pharmacies. GHG had a subsidiary - Amicus Health - which tendered for contracts for the UK's

National Health Service The National Health Service (NHS) is the term for the publicly funded health care, publicly funded healthcare systems of the United Kingdom: the National Health Service (England), NHS Scotland, NHS Wales, and Health and Social Care (Northern ...

(NHS). It had contracts with

Stracathro Hospital Stracathro Hospital is a community hospital in Angus, Scotland. Established as a wartime Emergency Hospital Service facility during the Second World War, it was afterward developed as a District General Hospital. Since 2005 it has been the site o ...

for 8000 episodes of elective surgery in orthopaedics, urology, general surgery and gastroenterology from 2006–9. Netcare used

Vanguard Healthcare Vanguard Healthcare Solutions Ltd. is a British company based in Gloucester that provides mobile clinical facilities and healthcare solutions. History 1999-2003 The company was established in 1999 as part of Cardinal Healthcare. Cardinal Hea ...

mobile units to treat NHS cataract patients across the UK. The mobile cataract units in Cumbria had failure rates 6 times that of local NHS facilities. In 2019, Netcare partnered with Founders Factory Africa, selecting 35 African health-tech startups for an acceleration and incubation program. Accelerated startups will receive a £30,000 cash investment (≈$38,000) and £220,000 in support services from Founders Factory Africa. Incubator health-tech ventures will receive £60K cash and £100K toward support. Founders Factory Africa and Netcare will share a 5 to 10 percent equity stake in each startup accepted into the program.

Operations

Netcare provides private healthcare services at 49 Netcare hospitals, 55 Netcare medicross clinics, 5 prime cure medical centers, and 15 Netcare akeso psychiatric facilities. Netcare is also a private trainer of nursing and emergency medical personnel through Netcare Education’s Faculty of Nursing and Ancillary Healthcare (FNAH) and Faculty of Emergency and Critical Care (FEEC). FNAH provides education and training at five campuses and FECC at two campuses.

References

Companies established in 1996 Health care companies of South Africa Health care companies of the United Kingdom Health care companies established in 1996 Companies based in Sandton Private providers of NHS services Companies listed on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange {{SouthAfrica-company-stub