“We cannot reward doctors who work more or better and it is very difficult to restructure if we need to. On the other hand, I have to say that large state-run hospitals solve difficult cases coming from the private sector when interventions are too complex for the latter,” said Catalin Cirstoiu, manager of Bucharest’s University Hospital, during Tuesday debates at ZF’s Pharma Summit.
As far as the industry is concerned, players in private healthcare agree that the market, now worth around EUR500 million, will grow in the coming years, but they are divided as to how much. While some players say growth will be in double digits, others say it will be less than 10%.
Conclusions after the second day of ZF Pharma Summit ’12:
• The private medical services sector will climb by around 10% in the next five years.
• Development will depend on the new healthcare law, which is currently up for public debate.
• The market of private health insurance will not grow because it has not grown in the other Eastern European countries, either. Romanians don’t want to pay EUR50-100 per month for additional or complementary insurance.
• Foreign patients are more likely to come to Romania to get treatment because the costs of an operation for instance are three times lower.
• Private hospitals will continue to rely on direct payments from individuals in the coming years. There are Romanians who paid as much as EUR30,000 for an operation and for postoperative care in a local private hospital.
• State-run hospitals continue to feel the pressure of private ones, but complicated operations are still conducted in public hospitals.
• The private medical system is increasingly gaining ground both through investments in new facilities and through patients’ willingness to accept this system, said the four largest players in the private medical services sector (MedLife, Medicover, Regina Maria and Sanador) in the second and final day of the “ZF Pharma Summit’12” organized by Ziarul Financiar.
(English version by Daniela Stoican)