Consolidation of Thailand’s private hospitals
Bangkok Dusit Medical Services (BGH), the giant hospital group that operates Samitivej, BNH Hospital, and Bangkok Hospital centers around the country, continues to gobble up private hospitals. Last week they merged with Health Network which operates Phyathai and Paolo hospitals. BGH has stated that it is preparing to compete for business in the entire ASEAN region once the market liberalisation occurs in 2015. They also want to be listed on the stock exchange of Thailand (SET) to raise additional funds for further expansion.
Meanwhile, Bangpakok Hospital Group just announced plans to merge with a local private hospital firm once it is listed on the SET. They declined to mention the name of their planned partner, but who is left now that BGH has consumed most of the private hospitals in the Kingdom? There is still Bumrungrad Hospital, but it isn’t clear if that merger would make sense.
Khun Pleum (Twitter @KhunPleum), host of the TV talk show “The Daily Dose” commented on the takeovers and expansion of BGH to become a gigantic regional health care provider and called it a positive development. I’m not so sure. My experiences with Bangkok Hospital has been rather mixed. It’s true that I have only used their facilities in Korat and Pak Chong so my experience is somewhat limited. But there’s a definite thread running through their operation at both places.
Their Pak Chong facility used to be a separate private clinic. I used it twice before BGH took over. It was pretty basic in terms of doctors and facilities. After BGH took over the only thing that I noticed that changed was the prices skyrocketed. Bangkok Hospital’s Korat center sends doctors to Pak Chong on a rotating basis and I have the feeling their top doctors stay back in Korat. And at both facilities they constantly try to sell extra, expensive, procedures. Many times when I or a family member go in there with an ailment they recommend an MRI. In many cases it is obviously nonsense. The prescriptions for highly marked up medicines are more easily avoided by making a trip to a local pharmacy.
I can’t say if this same mode of operation is in place at their other facilities but I have a feeling that BGH is focused entirely on the bottom line and all of their acquisitions will go the same way. It is rather worrisome that there are so few competing choices left for private medical care in Thailand. There is still Bumrungrad Hospital, but even that hospital is raising concerns among many patients, particularly in the expat community, due to a very apparent change in attitude toward English speaking patients.