Building of private medical facilities in Poland underway

2010-06-16

Despite the economic crisis which contributed to a slower rate of growth in the medical subscriptions market in Poland, in 2009 the leading private medical companies developed their medical services rapidly, in terms of both outpatient and inpatient services. The trend of opening hospitals was a new phenomenon in 2009 – in the past, the leaders in the sale of medical subscriptions had not operated their own hospitals.

Market development as stimulus for investment
To date, private medical companies competed against public establishments mostly in delivery of outpatient services. Driven by the rising interest in private healthcare services and the ensuing increase in competition combined with growing demands of customers, private companies are not only forced to focus on developing their outpatient clinics (e.g. Lux Med opened 11 clinics in 2009), but they are also prompted to build their own hospitals.
Grupa Nowy Szpital (GNS) and EMC Instytut Medyczny are the two private healthcare companies in Poland with the largest chains of hospital chains. GNS runs a chain of 12 hospitals, including Nowy Szpital in Olkusz, Nowy Szpital of Krosno Odrzanskie County and Nowy Szpital in Szprotawa which joined Grupa Nowy Szpital in 2010. EMC Instytut Medyczny operates eight hospitals in Dolnoslaskie, Mazowieckie, Opolskie, Slaskie and Zachodniopomorskie voivodships. In 2009, the EMC Group was joined by St. Anne’s hospital in Piaseczno (used under a 25-year lease contract) and John Paul II’s Geriatrics Hospital in Katowice. Hospitals operated by Grupa Nowy Szpital and EMC Instytut Medyczny have been mostly established as a result of restructuring of public hospitals and they offer medical services mostly under contracts with the National Health Fund (NFZ). For instance, approximately 80% of revenue generated by EMC hospitals is contributed by contracts with the Fund.

A variety of private establishments
Recently, the Polish market has seen the emergence of non-public hospitals mostly focusing on providing services paid for directly from patients’ pockets or covered by medical subscriptions or additional medical insurance policies. These hospitals are not only small establishments specialising in one-day surgeries but some of them are also larger, multi-profile hospitals.
An example of a project of this type is St. Raphael’s Hospital (target: 150 beds) in Krakow. The hospital now offers medical services in orthopaedics, general surgery and plastic surgery, but Scanmed plans to expand the number of the hospital’s areas of specialisation (e.g. cardiosurgery). Medicover was another private healthcare company to open a hospital in 2009. Built for approximately €40m, Warsaw’s Medicover Hospital comprises 180 beds (though their number will eventually increase to 270) and offers medical services in gynaecology, obstetrics, paediatrics, internal medicine, angiology, cardiology and surgeries. At the beginning of 2010, Carolina Medical Center (CMC), in which Medicover holds an interest, opened a 34-bed clinic in Warsaw, which is specialised in treating orthopaedic injuries mostly associated with sports. Neither Medicover, nor CMC offer inpatient services under contracts with NFZ.

More hospitals will open
If medical companies successfully implement their investment plans, the private inpatient healthcare sector will continue to grow in the coming years. For instance, the Lux Med Group (Lux Med, CM LIM, Medycyna Rodzinna and Promedis), which has not established a hospital as yet, plans to open one in Warsaw in the middle of 2010. It will be a small establishment specialised in one-day surgeries. In a long-term horizon, the company intends to open a multi-profile 50-bed hospital in Warsaw in 2012/2013.
Medicover intends to open Radiotherapy Centre in Warsaw and has plans on starting a chain of several small hospitals providing one-day surgeries and diagnostic tests in Poland’s major cities. Swissmed, which already has a hospital in Gdansk, commenced the construction of a hospital in Warsaw in the spring of 2010. The project is scheduled for completion in May 2011. The 44-bed establishment will have a floor space of 4,400 m².

More information on private hospitals and private medical companies in Poland can be found in the report “Private healthcare market in Poland 2010. Development forecasts for 2010-2012”, published by PMR in May 2010.

Agnieszka Stawarska
Pharmaceutical Market Analyst
PMR Publications
agnieszka.stawarska@pmrpublications.com