According to a new report from Fitch Solutions, private healthcare providers in Southeast Asia are well positioned to gain from rising incomes, increased health care spending, and a chronic underfunding of public health care systems in the region.
The outlook for investments in the private healthcare provider landscape in Southeast Asia, according to Fitch Solutions, continues to be positive due to strong growth fundamentals.
Patients are increasingly using private healthcare services, in line with higher incomes seen across Asia Pacific economies, claiming that the quality of public healthcare in the region remains relatively low.
This trend will continue over the next ten years with a number of major markets across the region demonstrating rapid growth in expenditure on private healthcare.
Private healthcare spending will grow at the highest rate in the Philippines at 9%, followed by Singapore 8%, Indonesia 8% Thailand 7.5%, Cambodia 7% and Malaysia 6%.
Thailand, Indonesia, Vietnam and the Philippines are striving to provide universal healthcare cover which, according to Fitch Solutions, is straining the resources and service quality in public hospitals.
Governments have been slow to address the need for both a significant investment in public hospital infrastructure and for a greater number of healthcare professionals. Public hospitals are often overcrowded, with shortages of doctors, medical supplies and diagnostic equipment, which affects their ability to deliver high quality car
To expand healthcare offerings beyond the public sector, governments are providing incentives such as tax holidays, and raising the caps for foreign equity ownership to encourage private healthcare providers to fill the demand and supply gap.
Fitch Solutions state that the growth of medical tourism has also resulted in an increasing number of private hospitals in the Southeast Asia region seeking international certifications to expand patient capture beyond the region. It recognises that Thailand, Malaysia and Singapore have traditionally been the major destinations for medical tourism due to government health care promotion support and high standards of care.
Key challenges in the health provider landscape remain however, including an inadequate supply of doctors and nurses, uncertainty over patients’ willingness to pay, and inability to provide cost effective healthcare delivery.
©2024 All rights reserved LaingBuisson 
