Netcare was established in 1996, and was listed on the
JSE Limited (Johannesburg Stock Exchange) the same year. The company expanded into the
United Kingdom in 2001. In 2002 it won The Ophthalmic Chain contract in
Kent,
Merseyside,
Cumbria,
Lancashire,
Hampshire, and
Thames Valley, to carry out 44,500 cataract removals over a 5-year period and the £2.5bn contract for the Greater Manchester Surgical Centre, a 48-bed facility at
Trafford General Hospital to provide 44,863 elective procedures over 5 years with a diagnostics programme valued at £1bn. In 2004 it signed a contract to carry out 41,600 cataract operations for the NHS at sites throughout the UK including
Cumberland Infirmary. The company acquired a controlling stake in
General Healthcare Group, the UK's largest private hospital group with 50 hospitals, in 2006 for £2.2 billion. This brought Netcare's total number of hospitals to 120 with over 11,000 beds, 510 operating theatres, and 37 pharmacies. GHG had a subsidiary - Amicus Health - which tendered for contracts for the UK's
National Health Service (NHS). It had contracts with
Stracathro Hospital for 8000 episodes of elective surgery in orthopaedics, urology, general surgery and gastroenterology from 2006 to 2009. Netcare used
Vanguard Healthcare mobile units to treat NHS cataract patients across the UK. The mobile cataract units in Cumbria had failure rates 6 times that of local NHS facilities. In 2019, Netcare partnered with Founders Factory Africa, selecting 35 African health-tech startups for an acceleration and incubation program. Accelerated startups will receive a £30,000 cash investment (≈$38,000) and £220,000 in support services from Founders Factory Africa. Incubator health-tech ventures will receive £60K cash and £100K toward support. Founders Factory Africa and Netcare will share a 5 to 10 percent equity stake in each startup accepted into the program. ==Operations==