More people will soon have the option of undergoing minor surgery at a hospital that will discharge them on the same day, following the listing of [b]Advanced Health[/b] on the [b]JSE Stock Exchange’s AltX[/b] board, reports [s]The Times[/s]. The company is putting up R20m and intends to raise an additional R80m to build about 10 day hospitals in the next five to seven years. Advanced Health owns day hospitals in Roodepoort and in Witbank and is building a third in Soweto. It also owns two in Australia. [b]University of Witwatersrand[/b] health economist Alex van den Heever says: ‘Our hospital admission rate is double that of the US. But South African patients stay in hospital for half the time of Americans. This indicates that a lot of healthy patients are admitted to our hospitals, partly because there are few day-hospital alternatives.’
[link url=http://www.timeslive.co.za/thetimes/2014/04/25/surgery-in-the-fast-lane]Full report in The Times[/link]