The market of private medical services, put at some 200 million euros, will see a more than 15% increase this year amid the rising medium incomes of the population, which is moving away from the public, low-quality services.
Private operators have spotted growth opportunities as early as several years ago and bet on private clinics and hospitals.
The number of such centres will become even higher over the following period, in parallel with the development of the private insurance market.
"We expect the growth pace to reach 20%, spurred on the one hand by the emergence of some professional insurance products and on the other hand by the deductibility of 200 euros per annum per person, in line with current regulations," explained Mihail Marcu, a general manager with MedLife, which operates 19 clinics and yesterday opened its first private hospital.
According to players in this industry, the average growth pace could get as high as 30% in the capital city, which concentrates 40% of the overall market.
"(...) Demand is justified by the population's rising needs for medical assistance, by the rising need for prevention services, as well as by the emergence of some investigation and treatment techniques addressing some needs that are not covered at present," said Marina Otelea, general manager with Medicover, which owns 7 private clinics.
In Romania, the main private service operators are Medicover, Centrul Medical Romar, MedLife, Centrul Medical Unirea, Medsana, Clinica Polisano and Hiperdia. Most of these currently operate private clinics, with investments in hospitals being started as late as 2005. Thus, at present, major private operators own more than 30 clinics, while the number of big hospitals in January 2007 reached two.
"The value of investments in a private clinic particularly depends on its size. In the case of small medical centres (...), the value is likely to revolve around 1.5 million euros," says Mihail Marcu. In the case of big clinics, investments may get to even 10 million euros.
Despite the high value of involved investments, all private clinic operators have aggressive growth plans for this year.
Beside private clinics, operators have started developing private hospitals as well. Companies will further invest in private hospitals, banking on the population's rising incomes and on the switch from a decaying system.
EU integration will not bring major changes on this market in the next 2-3 years, since domestic private medical services are above the level of neighbouring countries.
The market of private health insurance, assessed at 5 million euros last year, is expanding in parallel with the private health services.
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