The Crestcare Hospital Group has cut the ribbon on its newest development, the R238-million acute hospital in the Western Cape town of Malmesbury.

Crestcare’s majority shareholder is black-owned and managed private equity firm Summit Africa.

Summit Africa private equity partner and value-add lead Ngange Nongogo tells Engineering News & Mining Weekly that the Crestcare group typically targets rural and peri- urban areas that are viewed as underserved by the big four hospital groups in South Africa, with the group’s tariffs also lower than those of the competition.

He says Summit Africa is focused on making financial as well as social impact. Listing on the JSE is not being excluded as a future option.

Situated in the agricultural heart of the Swartland, the new Malmesbury hospital means that the town’s residents no longer have to travel more than 40 km to the nearest private healthcare facility.

The new hospital is expected to create 170 new jobs once fully operational.

“Bringing critical acute care closer to communities has a ripple effect,” says Crestcare Malmesbury Hospital CEO Charl Hambridge.

“Every hospital bed added creates 1.5 direct jobs, and each R1-million invested in a hospital can generate an equivalent annual income for local small, medium-sized and micro businesses.”

The hospital, which opened for admissions on August 1, features 84 beds and four advanced operating theatres, including a high-tech laminar flow theatre.

Laminar flow theatres work to prevent airborne bacteria from infecting open wounds, while also removing and reducing levels of bacteria on exposed surgical instruments, surgeons and the patient’s skin.

With an emphasis on acute care, the hospital focuses on the immediate and short-term treatment of any critical or life- threatening injury, illness or disease, with several specialist areas such as emergency and trauma care, intensive care, as well as neonatal and pediatric intensive care units.

Oncology and dialysis units are potentially on the cards once the hospital expands, says Crestcare CEO Kit Wostenholm.

The facility’s landlord is Twin City.

The launch of Crestcare Malmesbury follows the opening of the newly expanded Crestcare Zoutpansberg in December, a 92-bed acute hospital in Louis Trichardt, Limpopo, serving Makhado and the broader Vhembe district.

The other entities in the group include Crestcare Nelspruit, a specialist hospital serving patients in the broader Mpumalanga, Mozambique and eSwatini regions; as well as the Apex Soweto Day Hospital, in Gauteng; and LifePath, the second largest mental health and addiction treatment provider in South Africa.

Looking ahead, Nongogo says the key focus is to consolidate the Crestcare group into one cohesive entity with similar branding and standard operating procedures, while also putting in place a central management office.

There is also an expansion on the cards, in growing a 14-bed hospital to a 77-bed hospital, as well as the acquisition of an existing 163-bed facility.

The group aims to have at least 800 beds within the next two years, specifically in peri-urban, rural and township areas.

“Notwithstanding the potential introduction of National Health Insurance, we view the healthcare sector as a defensive asset class,” says Nongogo.

“For this reason, we continue to invest directly in the provision of quality, affordable healthcare services in peri-urban, rural, and township areas, where there is a significant undersupply, by partnering with local communities and medical specialists.”

Nongogo adds that healthcare infrastructure investments in rural areas benefit from high barriers to entry and are tenant-driven, non-speculative ventures with capital protection through the land value, yearly property revaluations, rental escalations and long, triple-net leases.