The Sims Clinic last year recorded pretax losses of €2.85 million as in-vitro fertilisation (IVF) tourism – where patients travel overseas for treatment – continued to hit its revenues.
Accounts filed by The Sims Clinic Ltd show that the fertility service company recorded the €2.85 million pretax loss after revenues declined by 5 per cent from €8.07 million to €7.64 million in the 12 months to the end of June 2024.
The decrease in revenues continued the trend from the previous year where revenues went down by 21.5 per cent from €10.16 million to €8.07 million.
In a note with the accounts the directors said that the reintroduction of IVF tourism had a negative impact on volumes in 2024 just as it had in 2023.
The company’s pretax loss of €2.85 million last year is an 11 per cent decline on the pretax losses of €3.2 million in the prior year.
The Sims Clinic o has facilities in Cork, Carlow, Limerick, Dundalk and two in Dublin in Swords and Clonskeagh.
The company website said that the business was expanding and was opening a new satellite clinic in Wexford next month.
In their report, the directors said that the company had “sufficient liquidity and other resources to support its ongoing operations through the support provided by its intermediate parent company Virtus Health Pty Ltd”.
The Sims Clinic’s biggest cost is staff and it reduced that last year from €5.8 million to €5.3 million as numbers employed declined from 100 to 85 made up of 63 clinical staff and 22 in administration.
The firm’s revenues consisted of €6.9 million from the IVF operation and €725,398 in diagnostic revenues.
The firm’s losses last year take account of non-cash depreciation of €290,788.
The clinic has benefited from the introduction of the State’s funded Assisted Human Reproduction (AHR) treatment and is one of eight HSE approved clinics to provide the service.
At the end of June last, the company’s shareholder funds totalled €262,150 while cash funds decreased from €186,023 to €70,533.
The accounts noted that the company was licensed by the Health Products Regulatory Authority (HPRA).
“It is crucial to the survival of the business that the HPRA licence is maintained and that strong controls are in place to ensure that professional malpractice or patient error does not occur.
“To this end, stringent controls are in place to safeguard the interests of the patients at all times,” the accounts said.
