Aster DM Healthcare, a company based in Dubai, is investing P250 million to build at least five ambulatory clinics in the Philippines over the next 18 months.
Aster teamed up with local company Casam Holdings Inc. of businessman Sammy Lim to roll out the investment, beginning with an ambulatory clinic, which recently opened at St. Francis Square in Ortigas.
“We are building a network of ambulatory clinics to fill the gap in hospital and healthcare management. The Philippines is one of the countries with insufficient healthcare facilities. We intend to provide service where it is needed,” Aster DM president and country manager Joyce Alumno said in news briefing at Oakwood Hotel in Mandaluyong City.
Aster has a 90-percent in the joint venture, while Casam Holdings has 10 percent.
“Aster would like to make the Philippines a medical center in Asia. We’ll set a new standard now in the industry and the others will have to upgrade. Aster have the most modern equipment in the whole of Asia,” said Lim.
Aster DM is the largest healthcare network in the Gulf Cooperation Countries with over 290 establishments composed of a network of 14 hospitals, five medical centers, a medical university and nearly 145 pharmacies in India, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar and Oman.
The company said in the Philippines, it planned to penetrate places where there was a dearth of healthcare management and facilities.
Alumno said there were more hotel beds than hospital beds in the Philippines.
She said the Philippines had only 100,000 hospital beds for a population of nearly 102 million Filipinos, translating to a ratio of 1:1,000.
Philippines hotels have more than 200,000 beds for about 6 million foreign visitors and 45 million local tourists.
“This can be the reason why healthcare and health management in the Philippines hasn’t grown in previous years,” she said.
Alumno said the Aster had the capability to grow “because we have the system, the infrastructure is there. It’s a matter of duplicating them from one model to another,” she said.
Ambulatory clinics are healthcare facilities where patients walk in and walk out after treatment. Minor surgeries can also be performed in these clinics.