[Image: Wikimedia Commons]
Mediclinic just fired the starter pistol on one of South Africa’s most unsettling workplace races — man versus machine — becoming one of the first big names in local healthcare to put Artificial Intelligence front and centre in its survival strategy.
Buckle up, humans, the bots are clocking in.
MedicalBrief reports that this bold, budget-slicing, tech-hugging move isn’t just about looking cool in front of investors. It’s a calculated sprint to stay relevant in a medical world that’s evolving faster than your GP can say “Take two and call me in the morning.” But a recent study has already started flashing hazard lights, warning that AI’s rise might not just cut costs – it could cut corners too, putting patients at risk if human oversight takes a backseat.
Dutch researchers have also thrown in their two cents, pointing out the fine print in the AI promise. These clever prediction models might seem like crystal balls for healthcare outcomes, but if you train them on the ghosts of medicine’s past – you know, the same old biases and inequalities – all you’ll get is high-tech discrimination on autopilot.
And while the human vs. algorithm debate warms up, Mediclinic’s already swinging the axe. Non-essential hires (aka anyone who isn’t wielding a stethoscope) are frozen stiff, and generous severance packages are being handed out – all in the name of saving a chunky R2 billion by 2027. Now it’s all about adapt or die trying.
COO Bertrand Levrat told investors on Monday that while South Africa’s biggest private hospital group was in a sound financial position, the healthcare system was evolving, and the company had to stay ahead of the changes, reports BusinessLIVE.
Levrat, who joined the Mediclinic fold last year after running Switzerland’s largest university hospital, is aiming for that sweet R2bn annual savings figure by 2027. If the AI gods are kind, and the bots don’t hallucinate or unionise, it’ll happen.
Speaking at an investor briefing for parent company Remgro, Levrat explained the AI shift was perfectly timed with “the changing healthcare landscape, characterised by medical innovation, decreasing affordability and evolving population factors.” Basically, robots are cheap, patients are expensive, and people live too long.
Back at Geneva University Hospitals (GUH), Levrat was already deep in the AI trenches, rolling out tech to streamline admin chaos and keep patients flowing like a well-oiled production line – exactly the same pain points Mediclinic now wants to cure with code.
Mediclinic has rolled out an entire AI, data and automation hit squad, led by its chief data officer, with the mission of plugging in tech that promises the fastest return on investment – no fluff, just function.
Documents reveal that robotic process automation (RPA) is already clocking serious hours, chewing through back-office grunt work like an over-caffeinated intern, “leading to cost reduction through staff efficiency.” And the AI wish list doesn’t end there: predictive systems to ghost-proof client no-shows and automated medical coding are all part of the master plan.
And it’s not just a Mediclinic problem — AI’s creeping into cubicles across the board. Sashen Naidu, global vice-president for customer experience services at NTT, told Daily Maverick the staffing shake-up is only getting started.
“You have fantastic use cases that can reduce people costs by 60% or 70%,” Naidu said, sounding like a man who’s seen the spreadsheet proof.
“A lot of the transactional capabilities are going to be handled by AI agents. We’re already seeing that right now. But there’s a shift in terms of the agents to handle far more complex queries.”
He laid out the cold, hard maths: “A typical transaction is around four to six minutes… we’re talking about a significant decrease in costs when comparing AI solutions to human workers.”
Over at Salesforce, Robin Fisher echoed the same future-proof mantra during the Agentforce conference, with a thinly-veiled jab at the old hiring grind: “It’s going to be really critical that the agents we use are adding value because that’s a nice problem to have, your need to hire personnel – in a call centre, you don’t want to constantly hire low-skilled people – that costs the company a fortune.”
This shift toward a “digital labour force enhancing your labour force” raises significant questions about the future of work in healthcare settings like Mediclinic, where administrative and support functions may be prime targets for automation.
And that’s the new healthcare homework: humans for heart, machines for maths.
But Mediclinic isn’t only chasing savings. It’s also splashing out on AI-powered clinical tools, aiming for better care, faster diagnosis, and – naturally – new revenue streams. From AI-linked wearables that sniff out patient deterioration before the humans do, to genetic data collaborations with Geneyx in the Middle East, the company’s not shy about importing brains in bulk.
Radiology’s also on the AI shopping list. Van der Merwe, the group CEO, said the company has bought two radiology outfits and wants to bulk up in-house skills.
“We run radiology services in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Switzerland quite efficiently. So, it’s only natural we are starting to look at that in SA. The idea is to buy some of these practices and afterwards to start developing our own services,” he said.
Not bad for a company born in the Remgro boardrooms back in the ’80s. Today, the Mediclinic empire stretches across 74 hospitals, five sub-acute hospitals, six mental health facilities, 20 day-case clinics, and 28 outpatient clinics – sprinkled across SA, Namibia, Switzerland, and the Middle East.
And let’s not forget the cherry on top: Mediclinic holds a 29.9% slice of Spire Healthcare, a UK-based private healthcare group that’s parked comfortably on the London Stock Exchange.
So yes, the machines are coming. But they won’t be scrubbing in. They’ll be running the back office while humans, for now, stick to the bedside.
[Source: Medical Brief]
