Page 11 - ELITE PLUS MAGAZINE VOL8

We set up a“few hospitals in Cambodia and Laos. But ultimately our strategy is to establish Thailandas a hub providing health care services to foreigner”smembers, so far only Thailand and Singapore have sufficient ability to support health care services for the population of the community. We need to improve language skills of our staff, at least in English as the official language. It would be even more beneficial if they can communicate in neighbouring languages, especially Burmese. The majority of foreign patients currently come from Myanmar, as the policy to shut itself off for so long kept their medical technology from advancing as quickly.Have you invested in any health care centres in neighbouring countries?We set up a few hospitals in Cambodia and Laos. But ultimately our strategy is to establish Thailand as a hub providing health care services to foreigners. We’ve found that setting up hospitals in foreigncountries entails challenges such as the communication barrier and inadequate use of equipment that doesn’t cover costs. It is more efficient to gather advanced technology devices in a hub and provide medical services for patients throughout the region through this centre.Inconsistent regulations in countries such as Myanmar are also a factor discouraging us from investing in hospitals abroad. Even though several international agree- ments allow for the free movement of skilled labour, in reality the policies of organisations will restrict agreements to put that into practice. To give an example, an ASEAN treaty lets doctors, dentists, accountants and architects work across member coun- tries. Nevertheless, the domestic federations of professional associa- tions such as the Medical Council of Myanmar will restrict the employmentof overseas medical staff. I think it will take time before skilled workers are really allowed to move freely.Apart from ASEAN, what foreign markets is BDMS targeting? There are a considerable number of Arab patients in hospitals in the BDMS group. This market has high purchasing power and they lack enough medical staff in their countries. Abu Dhabi, for example, has a population of 3 million, but only 700,000 are locals while the rest are migrant workers. Since the local population is low, the incentive to establish highly standardized health care centres in Abu Dhabi is likewise low. Private hospitals are set up for foreign labourers, and those locals who seek higher standards of service will fly toeither Singapore or Thailand. Chinese are another target. Mostmainland Chinese are likely to fly toElite+ 9