Dr Desmond Wai: "When a businessman runs a medical practice....."

[Hmv]

vid at https://shortto.link/skJ

 

[True Believer]

The reality is that private medical care is a business where operators of clinics and hospitals are responsible to their shareholders in terms of profits and dividends. Control is in the hands of a few major players who operate in the presence of imperfect competition. This accounts for private healthcare costs rising at a rate of more than 20% a year.

 

[True Believer]

While it is impossible for a single private hospital to corner the market, undercut all competitors and raise prices when patients are left with no alternatives, companies like Parkway Pantai, which owns four premier private hospitals in Singapore, have sufficient market share to enjoy an oligopoly.

 

[True Believer]

Skyrocketing rents for clinics are a contributory factor which is driven by demand from doctors leaving the public sector, and the institutionalisation of ownership and management of clinic space through private developers, property funds and Real Estate Investment Trusts.

 

[True Believer]

The proliferation of public listings by medical groups and private hospitals has health-cost implications. Conflict of interest, accountability to shareholders and monopolistic practices associated with medical IPOs would inevitably result in higher charges.

 

[Cs101]

SG has gone to the dogs, everything is about profit, profit and more profit for the elites while the average sinkie withers away