Street: Northumberland Avenue
The healthcare industry in Romania has been one of the most dynamic sectors for investment over the past years, maintaining growth throughout the financial crisis.
Most developments have been driven by private health services, diagnostics and pharmaceutical retail and distribution. Yet the transformation of the Romanian healthcare landscape is still in the early stage, with “white spaces” and areas for development across most segments.
The Romanian market for private health care is expected to grow by approximately 15% in 2012 and exceed £300M. The health sector has only recently shifted focus from polyclinics chains and diagnostic laboratories to developing fully-fledged hospitals or specialised clinics and niche practices. Romania currently has around 100 private hospitals of different sizes. Seven of the largest hospitals opened this year.
The segment has seen multiple private equity transactions and may increasingly consolidate. Some components of it, like long term care, have not yet received the attention experienced in other EU countries.
The Ministry of Public Health has elaborated a new health law in its attempt to increase access to basic medical care, enhance the quality of medical services and improve the health indicators.
The innovation and research and developmentpotential of Romania in the biomedical sciences has been largely un-explored, despite the country’s many university centres with scientific tradition. IBM has recently chosen Romania for its new multidisciplinary centre of excellence, which will include medical and nanotechnology research and partner with public universities and municipalities.
Private medical insurance legislation has been pending for several years, and longer term funds, such as the World Bank and European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) have yet to be accessed to their full potential. Significant EU structural funds are still available and the absorption is so far low.
One of the principal drivers for growth is going to be the patient’s migration from state/public health care provision to private medical providers. More and more private healthcare providers are expected to enter the market and quality can be improved by an ongoing increase of competition between private health care providers in Romania.
Objective and participants
This event aims to bring together experts from healthcare (including pharmaceuticals), financial and consulting industries, as well as from the public sector in the UK and Romania, to share their varied views and experience and explore the multi-faceted opportunities for development of healthcare services in Romania.
In particular, these will include:
· Entrepreneurs and executives in healthcare services, pharmaceutical/medical device industries, medical insurance, research centres · Private equity/ venture capital/ banking professionals · Consulting professionals from private management/strategy consulting firms and academia · Public sector (NHS, Ministry of Health) · Representatives of international organisations (World Bank, EBRD, etc.)
The event is to be structured as a set of case studies, either specific to Romania, or more general ones that could serve as relevant examples for Romania.
Main Topics and Case Studies:
· Healthcare services: Private-Public Partnership; Healthcare management; Private Medical Centres’ Strategies; Long Term Care · Sectoral, macroeconomic and political overview · Healthcare Financing: Private Medical Insurance; Access to long term funds (World Bank; Equity investors; Policy tools for budget allocation ) · The Legal Framework
Email: p.tomes@medilink.co.uk
Website: www.medilink.co.uk