Gearing up for medical tourism

If there’s big spending, potential revenue sources should not be far behind. And the growing medical tourism is prize in sight. This should sum up why Metro Pacific Investment Corp. led by Manuel V. Pangilinan continues to buy (or acquire shares in) hospitals in the Philippines.

It all started in 2007 when Metro Pacific took a more aggressive interest in Makati Medical Center and acquired a 33.4-percent stake in it. The bill was worth P750 million in convertible notes, making MVP’s group its largest single investor.

At that time, Makati Medical Center was in the middle of management problems, partly attributable to difficulties among its original doctor-owners because of personality differences. The hospital, once the premier health care delivery institution in the center of the country’s business district, was slipping in terms of health care delivery.

Competition from nearby Asian Hospital and Medical Center, which opened in 2002, was challenging its Makati Medical Center’s reputation for having the latest medical equipment, rooms and suite of services, and the enrolment of the best doctors of the country.

Source - philstar