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IE Singapore estimates that 19 Singapore-based companies have operations in 15 countries, reports CHUANG PECK MING
PATIENTS from as far as India have been flocking to Singapore for medical treatment for decades. Increasingly, many can now save the trip.

While still drawing regional patients to Singapore, many healthcare providers here in recent years have also been reaching out to them by setting up shop overseas - especially in emerging markets and China.
And it's not just direct healthcare providers such as Parkway Healthcare and Raffles Medical that are striking out. Other local players who provide backing to them in the form of healthcare infrastructure, technology, logistics and training have also been jumping onto the bandwagon.

Gina Kek, assistant director of business services division, corporate group, International Enterprise Singapore, points out that RSP Architects have designed hospitals in India. novaHEALTH is selling healthcare management softwares in Indonesia and Qatari. ST Logistics, which manages the Health Sciences Authority's logistics in Singapore, is seeking similar projects in the Middle East and Asean.

'Demand for healthcare is rising globally and Singapore's healthcare players have brought Singapore's brand of world-class healthcare to the international market,' Ms Kek says.
IE Singapore estimates that 19 Singapore-based healthcare services companies have operations in 15 countries. Parkway, Singapore's largest healthcare provider, has set up hospitals and specialists centres in countries that include China, Malaysia and India.

Last December, the company made its first foray into the Middle East when it won the bid to manage the Danat-Al-Emarat Women and Children's Hospital in Abu Dhabi.
Overseas operations accounted for about a third of Parkway's revenues in the financial year 2008, up from around 13 per cent some six years ago.

Pacific Healthcare's clinics in Hong Kong and India have expanded to include medical and wellness centres in Hong Kong, Shenzhen and Mumbai. The company has also invested in a diagnostic radiology centre in Shanghai and five heart centres in Goa and Bangalore. It is about to launch a mediplex project in Bangkok, a multi-disciplinary specialist centre.
Another Singapore-based healthcare company, Thomson Medical Centre, has been active especially in Vietnam in the past three years, running the Hanh Phuc International Women and Children Hospital. In 2008, it inked a Memorandum of Understanding with Han Phuc JSC to provide hospital consultancy and management services to a proposed women and children's hospital project in Hanoi.

Singapore's healthcare industry has expanded in a big way in recent years. In the five years to 2007, healthcare spending here jumped from $4.7 billion to $7.05 billion. Value-added of the industry more than doubled to $3.9 billion, while employment rose from 26,163 to 57,217.

Along with the growth, Ms Kek pointed out two trends in the local healthcare business - the consolidation and corporatisation of general practitioners and clinics; and the increasing shift to training by hospital groups.

Yet, as AsiaMedic chief executive officer Khor Chin Kee observes, the home market for healthcare is getting crowded with the opening up of more hospitals. 'Once these centres are operational, Singapore is likely to hit saturation point.'
Dr Khor points out that the regional healthcare market, on the other hand, is booming. More established foreign healthcare players are developing healthcare facilities in emerging markets to cater to a flourishing medical tourism business.
IE Singapore says these markets offer opportunities for Singapore companies across the entire healthcare value chain - from operators of hospitals and clinics to those that provide the backup infrastructure, technology, logistics and training.
Ms Kek is particularly upbeat about the prospects in the Middle East and China.
'In view of China's slated healthcare reform in the coming years, more opportunities may surface in the China market,' she says.
Specifically, there will be openings in China for Singapore healthcare companies in consultancy and training to help boost the country's healthcare systems.

Ms Kek says that demand for health care in China will shoot up because of the rise in the middle class and urbanisation.
'China's rapid urbanisation will shift the country's disease profile to become more similar to that of developed nations,' she says. 'Factors associated with urbanisation, such as increasing environmental damage and increasing tobacco consumption, will increase the prevalence of chronic diseases common in more developed nations. These point to the corresponding need for more healthcare services.'

In the Middle East, unhappiness with state-provided healthcare has led to governments encouraging the involvement of the private sector.

Other contributors to the growth of opportunities for Singapore players in the Middle East are the shortage of clinical staff which requires trainers, and rising population in the region.
'Over the next two decades, the population of the (Arab) Gulf Cooperation Council countries is expected to double and the number of people aged over 65 is projected to increase,' Ms Kek says. 'As such, there will be a continual need for healthcare, such as building of new hospitals and provision of specialist care.'

She says that Singapore is in a strong position to compete for a slice of the healthcare business in the emerging markets. It has a great reputation and track record for clinical excellence that cuts across the full spectrum of healthcare services.
Singapore also has high healthcare management standards. It is in the forefront of medical science and technology and is a multi-faceted medical hub in the region.

But Ms Kek says that Singapore healthcare providers should not be complacent in the knowledge of these advantages. 'They should continue to examine new modes of market strategies, find out more about the markets and enhance their firm-level capabilities.'
And IE Singapore has in place a wide range of help schemes for them, she says, including study missions and incentives to form alliances and partnerships to break into overseas markets.