The Tribune

By NEIL HARTNELL

Tribune Business Editor

nhartnell@tribunemedia.net

Doctors Hospital’s return to profitability and 5.6 percent increase in total revenue for the first half of its current financial year signals “the start of the swing” that recent investments will create for future earnings.

Dennis Deveaux, the BISX-listed healthcare provider’s chief financial officer, told Tribune Business that new facilities such as its Paradise Island clinic are “doing very well” amid indications that its growth and expansion strategy is starting to boost top-line revenues and help reverse the $905,603 loss suffered during the 12 months to end-January 2025.

Speaking ahead of the company’s formal results release for the 2026 second quarter and six months to end-July 2025, he said: “Our second quarter top-line is very strong. Growth is approximately 5.6 percent higher year-over-year through our second quarter, and we’re generating an acceptable rate of profitability.

“That’s important. We’ve gone from a loss-making position last year to earning a respectable level of profitability through the first two quarters of this year. Revenue continues to grow, and we have actually seen the benefit of some of the investments we brought on line last year improving profitability for the first two quarters to give a respectable net profit position.”

Mr Deveaux declined to provide dollar figures ahead of Doctors Hospital’s first-half results release, which could happen as early as today, but said the performance for the six months to end-July 2025 represents “quite a significant and important swing”.

He added: “The results of that investment we’re seeing in the top-line. The first two quarters signal the start of the swing. That’s an important milestone marker for us. We still have to open the Grand Bahama hospital, and there are going to be some headwinds around, but we’re happy through the first two quarters to see a respectable level of profitability and we continue to remain optimistic.

“For the first half we are up 5.6 percent on top-line consolidated revenues, and we have seen an improvement in net income margins year-over-year. That’s also fairly important. Our net income margins have noticeably improved, and our impairment losses have significantly been lowered for the first two quarters of the year.

“There are lots of positive things that happened in the first half of last year, especially given the loss position of last year.” Besides the expansion of its clinic network, which includes the Paradise Island facility, Mr Deveaux said the long-awaited Harbourside location in eastern New Providence will also help to boost revenues and earnings this year.

“We completed Harbourside, our long-foreshadowed step down facility with 38 beds for the in-patient community, in 2025,” he confirmed. “We’ll see the income effects of that in fiscal year 2026 in our financial results.”

Doctors Hospital suffered a $2.85m bottom line reversal during the year that closed on January 31, 2025, swinging from a $1.945m profit during the prior 12-month period to a $905,603 loss. However, Mr Deveaux argued that the performance had to be assessed against the backdrop of a combined $9.5m in revenues that were generated in 2024 but did not reoccur the following year.

“What are the one-time effects that happened in 2024 that impacted our position in 2025 when you compare the year-over-year movement?” he added. “In 2024, we had government revenues of roughly $4.9m. Those revenues did not reoccur in 2025.” Mr Deveaux said those revenues were generated by the Government transferring patients, who would normally be treated at Princess Margaret Hospital (PMH), to Doctors Hospital due to a ward or part of that facility being closed.

“It also had a spillover effect on bad debt,” he added of the Government-related income. “Although we got some of them, and were able to bill for those, we did not have this [business] in 2025.” Of the $58m gross trade receivables due to Doctors Hospital, some $7.454m was owed by the Government at the January 31, 2025, year-end date. The latter figure, though, represented a more than $4.2m or 36.3 percent decrease compared to the $11.704m that was due from the Government at the close of the healthcare provider’s 2024 financial year.

“The other thing was we took down our cath (catheter) laboratory,” Mr Deveaux said of the forces impacting Doctors Hospital’s 2025 revenues. “It’s a very important piece of medical equipment that allows us to respond to a lot of neurological and cardiological conditions in a way that is life saving. These are life saving interventions.

“We took that down and that had a revenue impact in 2025. It was $4.6m. But even with those two kinds of headwinds our consolidated revenues are north of $120m and it supported a positive gain in top-line revenues.” Total revenues for the 12 months to end-January 2025 hit $121.508m, a $1.6m or 1.3 percent gain compared to the $119.891m generated during the prior year.

“The results [for 2025] reflect the reality of revenues we lost, one-time in nature, but they are balanced against significant investments we will continue to make in capacity - in particular for next year,” Mr Deveaux added. “We expect the cath lab to be online… They’re completing the installation now. These are things that tend to be very complex pieces of equipment.

“We expect the cath lab to be online next year, and that will expand on the revenue we lost in 2024 and 2025. It’s really more an upgrade in the technology, appreciating that the former equipment was fairly outdated and had reached an end of life position. We’ve made that investment. The piece of equipment itself is $1.5m, and it’s $300,000 to refit and reconfigure the space. It will be just under $2m in total.

“We would expect ultimately a significant return on investment, but that’s critical healthcare capacity that exists. If you have a stroke, if there’s a blockage, we’re able to provide some life saving interventions. We’re looking at a sustainable growth trajectory.”

Doctors Hospital’s audited financials for the year to end-January 2025 disclose that the loss would have been greater, and exceeded $1m plus, had it not been for the BISX-listed healthcare provider’s April 2024 acquisition of The Kidney Centre.

That business generated a $574,093 profit on $6.794m worth of patient service revenues during the final nine months of Doctors Hospital’s financial year. The latter’s financial statements reveal that the purchase price paid to acquire that business was $8.067m, and Mr Deveaux signalled that Doctors Hospital expects it to become an even stronger contributor to earnings once The Kidney Centre is fully integrated with the group to enable synergies and efficiencies to be extracted.

“From a top-line perspective it continues to contribute as expected,” the Doctors Hospital chief financial officer said. “A dialysis patient is a steady revenue business. Those patients are receiving long-term treatment. We expect to see in the first year, with a new acquisition, quite frankly that revenues are fairly stable until we find synergies between the company and the group.” He indicated that the healthcare provider expects more to come in future from its Kidney Centre purchase.