Dallah runs private hospitals in Riyadh, including Dallah Namar in the south of the city. (Dallah Health)
One of Riyadh's biggest private hospital groups lost government patients and walk-ins in the third quarter, as state referrals dried up at one hospital and roadworks blocked access to another.
Dallah Namar Hospital in south Riyadh lost some government contracts and referrals for long-term care patients, Dallah Healthcare's Chief Financial Officer Amine Hariz told Al Arabiya Business, Argaam reported on Wednesday.
Government long-term care patient numbers at the hospital fell 55% from a year earlier, according to the company's results.
The second hit: roadworks near Kingdom Hospital in Riyadh cut outpatient visits there by 9%, Hariz said.
What it cost: together, the two hospitals knocked about 31 million Riyal ($8.3 million) off quarterly profit. That's almost all of the roughly $8.5 million drop in Dallah's underlying profit.
The offset: paying patients, both cash and insured, rose 19% over the same period.
The bigger picture: the government is looking for savings as war costs push the budget further into deficit. Private hospitals that lean on state referrals are more exposed than those that rely on insured patients, whose numbers keep growing as more workers get compulsory cover.
What to watch: whether Dallah can fill Namar's empty beds with insured patients, and when the roadworks around Kingdom Hospital finish.
