Sun Apr 23, 2006
BANGKOK (AFP) - Nearly 1.3 million foreigners came to Thailand for medical treatment last year, but now private Thai hospitals are going overseas with an aggressive drive to expand around the region.
Five of Thailand's major private hospitals are opening branches abroad or forming alliances to run existing facilities in other countries, said Surapong Ambhanwong, an advisor to the Private Hospital Association.
"It's partly about referring patients to Thailand for either treatment or rehabilitation," he told AFP.
Many of the hospitals plan to open clinics that could provide basic services and emergency care in poorer neighboring countries, but would transfer patients to Bangkok to complete treatment, he said.
Bangkok Dusit Medical Services highlighted the trend earlier this year when it announced plans to set up two hospitals in Cambodia this year and in 2007, with foreign tourists their primary target.
The first hospital is set to open by October in Siem Reap -- the gateway town to the famed Angkor temples complex.
The company plans to spend 400 million baht (about $ 20.6 million) to open the 50-bed hospital, and then to double its capacity within two years.
"We are targeting the increased number of tourists going to Siem Reap, where no internationally-accepted hospitals operate," Wallop Adhikomprapa, Bangkok Dusit's vice president for corporate finance told AFP.
"Once our hospitals are operating, we could refer patients from Cambodia, many of whom are from Vietnam, Singapore and Malaysia, to Thailand," Wallop said.
"By using helicopters, we could refer patients from Cambodia to Thailand within 45 minutes."
Wallop said his group is also considering a plan to set up clinics on Vietnamese industrial estates to treat foreign workers who live there.
Bangkok Dusit -- which also operates Samitivej, BNH and Bangkok Hospital brands -- also plans a joint venture agreement with a Cambodian partner next year to invest in a hospital in the capital Phnom Penh to tap high-income earners.
Bumrungrad Hospital in Bangkok, which treated some 400,000 foreign patients last year, began investing in a hospital in Manila, and has inked three-year contracts to manage hospitals in impoverished Bangladesh and Myanmar.
An investor relations office at Bumungrad said the company was also considering a joint venture in Dubai.
International expansion is vital for Thai private hospitals, which are tipped to earn $ 933 million this year from about 1.4 million foreign patients, Thailand's Kasikorn Research Centre said.
"Regional competition has also intensified as Singapore, Hong Kong, and Malaysia have put effort into raising revenue from the health-care business," the centre said in a recent report.
Five of Thailand's major private hospitals are opening branches abroad or forming alliances to run existing facilities in other countries, said Surapong Ambhanwong, an advisor to the Private Hospital Association.
"It's partly about referring patients to Thailand for either treatment or rehabilitation," he told AFP.
Many of the hospitals plan to open clinics that could provide basic services and emergency care in poorer neighboring countries, but would transfer patients to Bangkok to complete treatment, he said.
Bangkok Dusit Medical Services highlighted the trend earlier this year when it announced plans to set up two hospitals in Cambodia this year and in 2007, with foreign tourists their primary target.
The first hospital is set to open by October in Siem Reap -- the gateway town to the famed Angkor temples complex.
The company plans to spend 400 million baht (about $ 20.6 million) to open the 50-bed hospital, and then to double its capacity within two years.
"We are targeting the increased number of tourists going to Siem Reap, where no internationally-accepted hospitals operate," Wallop Adhikomprapa, Bangkok Dusit's vice president for corporate finance told AFP.
"Once our hospitals are operating, we could refer patients from Cambodia, many of whom are from Vietnam, Singapore and Malaysia, to Thailand," Wallop said.
"By using helicopters, we could refer patients from Cambodia to Thailand within 45 minutes."
Wallop said his group is also considering a plan to set up clinics on Vietnamese industrial estates to treat foreign workers who live there.
Bangkok Dusit -- which also operates Samitivej, BNH and Bangkok Hospital brands -- also plans a joint venture agreement with a Cambodian partner next year to invest in a hospital in the capital Phnom Penh to tap high-income earners.
Bumrungrad Hospital in Bangkok, which treated some 400,000 foreign patients last year, began investing in a hospital in Manila, and has inked three-year contracts to manage hospitals in impoverished Bangladesh and Myanmar.
An investor relations office at Bumungrad said the company was also considering a joint venture in Dubai.
International expansion is vital for Thai private hospitals, which are tipped to earn $ 933 million this year from about 1.4 million foreign patients, Thailand's Kasikorn Research Centre said.
"Regional competition has also intensified as Singapore, Hong Kong, and Malaysia have put effort into raising revenue from the health-care business," the centre said in a recent report.
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