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Healthcare: Expansion of private clinics countrywide
After the big projects in private healthcare were placed on standby in Bucharest, investors shifted their attention to the rest of the country, where they opened in the last two years units worth tens of millions of euros, the Capital publication writes.
However, in almost half of Romania's counties there is no private hospital, a sign that the potential in this field is still huge. But where there are no hospitals, there is a wealth of private clinics or laboratories, in which investments under 500,000 euros have been made.
One of the few major investments in private healthcare in the past two years has been done in Brasov, with the opening of the Oncology Diagnostic and Treatment Centre, which required an investment of 24 million euros.
'The associates of the Centre have identified an opportunity to develop a cancer-treating clinic in Brasov, especially since oncological centres in Romania are state owned and suffer from a lack of equipment, as their pieces of equipment are old and worn,' says Ionela Rusu, the Centre's Marketing Manager.
The second-largest investment in the past two years is also in Brasov, where the shareholders of Teo Health opened in 2011 the Saint Constantine Hospital, following an investment of 20 million euros.
'We do not have major investments planned for the next period, and we will invest in developing the existing wards,' says Bogdan Angheloiu, the general manager of the hospital.
Therefore, Brasov (171 km north of Bucharest) is the second development pole of the private sector after Bucharest, followed by Ploiesti (60 km north of Bucharest).
The trend is still shy, since the operators with the highest turnovers have developed 53% of their businesses in Bucharest. Medlife, which holds the supremacy of private clinics and hospitals in Bucharest, will open hyperclinics in most cities with over 300,000 inhabitants, and the average investment in a clinic will be 500,000 euros.
The second private healthcare operator after Medlife, in terms of turnover, Regina Maria [Queen Mary], opened in 2012, also in Brasov, the Obstetrics-Gynecology and Pediatrics Hospital, following an investment of 7 million euros.
For this year also Gral Medical is planning three new oncology treatment centres, in Focsani (182 km north-east of Bucharest), in Pitesti (113 km north-west of Bucharest) and in Ploiesti, with an investment of 600,000 euros.'We will unite all the major cities in one project,' says Gral Medical Development Manager Robert Chitan.