Philippines healthcare industry set for growth
13-May-16, Inquirer
Philippine healthcare has seen increased activity and opportunities in the last few years. While healthcare demand is still driven by traditional factors such as aging populations and consequences of modern urban lifestyles that lead to increased incidences of disease, there are other factors that are stimulating exciting growth and innovations.
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With the Philippine Health Insurance Corp.’s (Philhealth) mandate to cover 100 percent of the population, demand for quality, affordable and accessible healthcare is on the rise. Among other opportunities, this allows the private healthcare sector to collaborate with public counterparts in providing improved services to Filipinos.
The Philippine healthcare sector has been attracting the attention of players within Southeast Asia and even the Middle East given the size of our population and the relative underinvestment in the sector.
The largest private healthcare provider in the country, Metro Pacific, counts eleven hospitals in the group with a total of about 3,000 beds across the Philippine islands. A relatively new entrant into the healthcare space is the Qualimed Health Network, owned and operated by the Mercado Hospital Group in partnership with Ayala Land. Qualimed currently has seven operational facilities with four more (two hospitals and two clinics) scheduled to open this year.