South Africa's biggest private hospital groups are in for a busy festive season as Covid-19 cases rise, putting their facilities under pressure and putting elective surgeries on the backburner.

This week, the country passed the 10 000 mark for new cases, which continue to climb, with more than 883 687 South Africans testing positive for the virus this year.

The hospital groups were hit hard by the country's first wave of the pandemic, which peaked in August, resulting in-billions in lost revenue. 

Life Healthcare reported a R2.3-billion revenue knock at its southern Africa operations for the year ended 30 September, due to the pandemic, while Mediclinic Southern Africa's revenue dropped by 19% for the year to R6.9-billion for the six months ended 30 September and Netcare reported that it lost about R3.7-billion in revenues due to the pandemic.

On Thursday, Life Healthcare's GM for emergency, Charl van Loggerenberg, said: "Capacity is a fluid scenario that changes on an hourly basis, however, we have close to 1 000 Covid-19 admissions, of which the majority are in the Eastern Cape, KwaZulu-Natal and the Western Cape."

The group has 9 136 registered beds and almost 1 000 of them are occupied by Covid-19 patients, its hospitals in Nelson Mandela Bay, Sarah Baartman District Municipality and Amathole in the Eastern Cape and along the Western Cape's Garden Route are under significant pressure and are nearing their maximum capacity to accommodate patients, as they continue to provide essential services such as maternity and emergencies for other patients. 

The group has since postponed its non-emergency surgeries to alleviate capacity pressure in the Eastern Cape.

Van Loggerenberg warned that KwaZulu-Natal could soon find itself in the same predicament.

Despite the pressure Life healthcare is experiencing, he said the financial impact on the group should be less severe compared to the April to August period, before the country's lockdown regulations were relaxed.

Life Healthcare's competitors, Mediclinic Southern Africa and Netcare, also face a similar predicament.

Dr Gerrit de Villiers, the clinical performance GM for Mediclinic International, said there was a "strong increase" in Covid-19 patients in the Southern Cape, Cape Winelands and Cape Metropole and the numbers were rising across Gauteng and KwaZulu-Natal.

"Where possible, we have made additional capacity available in the affected facilities, with the traditional decrease in elective surgeries during the festive season providing further capacity," De Villiers added.

He said the group had also reallocated equipment from other regions that had lower numbers of Covid-19 cases.

De Villiers added the experience the group gained during the first wave of the pandemic had helped it manage its patients.

With regards to its resources, the group has more than 8 700 beds in its southern Africa operation, which are made up of local operations and some in Namibia. Its ICU has 1 000 beds and 850 ventilators. 

Netcare was monitoring the second wave closely, said Jacques du Plessis, the managing director of its hospital division.

"Fortunately, rapid advances in medical understanding of Covid-19 have generated tremendous progress in treatment modalities, and specialists and hospitals are now better equipped to treat the disease," Du Plessis said.

However, Reuben Reuben Beelders, the chief investment officer and portfolio manager at Gryphon Asset Management, said the impact of the second wave was not likely to be as negative as the first one, as the groups have had more time to prepare.

"In the medium to longer term, there is an anticipation that hospital groups will benefit from the build-up of elective surgery not done during Covid. This needs to be balanced against the number of medical aid members who have lost their jobs and can no longer afford medical aid and therefore private healthcare," he added.