'Hospitals Have Separated Their Operating Business From Real Estate'

EHM News Bureau

From left to right: Richard Seow, Chairman, Parkway Holding, Dr Balaji Sadasivan, Senior Minister of State for Foreign Affairs & Communication, Govt of Singapore, Pehin Orang, Minister of Health, Brunei and CE Tan, Executive VP, Parkway Group

The International Healthcare Facilities Exhibition and Conference (IHFEC) 2006, which opened at the Singapore expo from August 31 to September 2, 2006, witnessed 29 leading international speakers sharing their knowledge on latest trends and practices in healthcare. The theme of the conference was 'To Be The International Healthcare Provider Of Choice'.

The conference had Dr Balaji Sadasivan, Senior Minister of State, Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Ministry of Communications, as the Guest of Honour. "This is a good opportunity to promote Singapore as the leading healthcare services hub in the region, where more than 3,00,00 international patients come annually for a whole range of medical care at our world-class healthcare facilities and infrastructure," said Dr Balaji in his welcome address.

Associate Professor Eugene Sim and Organising Chairman of IHFEC 2006 Conference, 2006, elaborated on how the healthcare sector in Asia is growing at a galloping pace. "Population ageing, lifestyle diseases, chronic illness and the emerging public health threats are putting increasing demand on hospitals. New technology and advances in medicine are constantly being introduced to the market place, which adds further to the pressure on hospitals to provide the best medical care," he said.

Richard Seow, Chairman, Parkway Holding Ltd appreciated the event for managing to attract the presence of guests, speakers and delegates from regional and international market to share their knowledge and experience. "Asia has much to offer as it grows to become a dynamic economic region. The healthcare industry, in particular, has been surging ahead, driven by the rapid pace of innovations in medical technology, growth in demand due to demographic changes and increase in the incidence of non-communicable and chronic diseases."

While speaking on 'Hospital Management and Financing', Peter Kappert, President of Private Hospitals, Switzerland, said, "In the last few years, hospitals have increasingly separated their operating business from their real estate and concentrated them into two different legal entities." There are various reasons for the separation. "On one hand, this will enable the company to focus on core competencies and limit the financial exposure. At the same time, owners can merge the hospitals into a network of several hospital sites, thus forming centres of excellence on different locations. Besides synergies and economies of scale, such a move will allow long-term strategic planning such as ownership succession," he elaborated.

Karl Erik Grevendahl, MD, Sustainable Business Hub, Sweden, said, "Hospitals are an important part of our society and as such must be examples of environmental responsibility. A sustainable hospital is an environmentally responsible and healthy place to work. Today, the potential for energy savings is greater in hospitals than in any other building type." He further added that creating hospital buildings and sustainable long-lasting healthy buildings requires a holistic view of the entire architectural process. “We believe that the relation between the surrounding environment, the building and the use of the building are integral parts of an ecological sustainable unity," he added. Dr Salim M Laik, Head, Health Sector, Saudi Arabian General Investment Authority (SAGIA), Saudi Arabia, spoke on 'The Economic Returns On Investment In Healthcare' in Saudi Arabia. "Saudi Arabia is by far the largest healthcare market in Arabian Gulf region. Today, funding comes mainly from the Government. However, a rapid increase in the Saudi population and changes on the trends of disease will create a growing demand for healthcare services over time, and a result place a growing funding and services delivery burden on the Saudi Government. Accordingly, fundamental steps are being taken to promote increased participation of the private sector in the funding and service delivery activities in the Saudi health sector."

Prof K C Lun, Director, Nanyang Technology University, Singapore, spoke on 'Digital Ring Fence: A New Paradigm For Containment Of Emerging Infectious Diseases'. "In recent years, a great deal of attention has been paid to disease pathogens capable of causing acute outbreaks even before their signs and symptoms appear. Such pathogens include organisms that are associated with biological Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD) such as anthrax and small pox and more recently, Emerging Infection Diseases (EIDs) such as SARS and the Avian flu," he said. Joni Steinman, Managing Principal AUSMS Healthcare Consultants, USA, spoke on ‘Re-engineering surgical services for the 21st Century’' "As more surgeries are deemed safe and effective to be performed on a day or ambulatory basis, many hospitals have responded by establishing dedicated outpatient surgery programmes or units within the hospital to accommodate this rapidly growing procedure cohort.” Speaking on ‘Future of Healthcare Informatics (HI) in Asia Pacific’, Wong Ming Fen, Programme Manager, Frost and Sullivan, Singapore, said, "According to Frost and Sullivan research, just the total HIS market alone in Asia Pacific was worth USD two to three billion in 2005 and is growing at a rate of 12.8 per cent. Both the Government and healthcare providers are looking at improving patient care through adoption of healthcare technology. The most significant investment being the implementation of HIS, PACS and EMR."