KUALA LUMPUR: DSH Management Sdn Bhd aims to meet the future shortage of hospital beds in Malaysia by forming partnerships with property developers and investors to build and operate independent private hospitals.

According to statistics from Frost and Sullivan, there are 24 new private hospitals with 6,893 additional beds slated for 2012 to 2015.

Even with the additional number of beds, DSH Management executive director Soalen Sittampalam said Frost and Sullivan anticipated a shortfall of 27,000 beds by 2015 in the country.

DSH Management is Malaysia’s first developer of hospital businesses that provides turnkey project and operations management to property developers and investors, in terms of setting up independent commercial hospitals, which are basically private commercial hospitals that are non-government linked.

“If you compare Malaysia with other countries, Malaysia falls short in terms of hospital beds, which includes hospitals in both the private and public sectors,” Soalen told StarBiz.

Statistics show that Wilayah Persekutuan and Penang each had about 1.75 private hospital beds per 1,000 urban population.

“Although it appears that 1.75 beds per 1,000 people is on the higher side, in actual fact, it’s not true because the urban hospitals also cater to the rural areas, plus to a certain extent, medical tourism as well,” said chief executive officer Datuk Dr Guna Sittampalam.

Guna added that in other states, private hospital beds ccounted for a third of those in major urban areas. “The development is lopsided and very central, so there is demand for more hospitals and private hospital beds,” he said.

Meanwhile, Soalen said although big property developers might be interested in setting up an independent hospital in their township, they often shied away because they did not have the expertise.

“Hospital project management is complex and requires much coordination and expertise. DSH Management has assembled an experienced team of in-house and external consultants,” said Guna.

DSH Management conducts the feasibility studies for its partners, as well as planning the set-up and operations of the hospital, and also develops the financial model, which consists of cash flows from operations and investments.

“We can run the hospital for them either on a build-operate-transfer or build-operate-manage basis. It’s not a problem at all. It usually takes six to seven years to recoup the investment.

“And after the incubation period of three years, the usual returns on equity range between 12% and 15% per annum. The beauty here is that once a hospital is run well, for the next 100 years, you are assured of getting this income,” Guna said.

DSH Management most recently completed a 71-bed hospital in Sungai Long, which had a cost-to-commissioning of less than RM25mil.

source:http://mjn-e-news.com.my