Interview with Bożena Walewska-Zielecka, Head of the Scientific Council, Medicover Poland
What is MEDICOVER’s place in Poland?
Medicover is a leading international healthcare and diagnostic services provider. We have been present on the Polish market for 29 years, providing a diverse portfolio of healthcare and diagnostic services to millions of patients each year. Poland is our largest market (46% of total group’s revenue for 2023). With revenue of 779.6 EUR, we are among the top three private medical companies both in Poland and in the CEE region.
Our portfolio in Poland includes preventive and outpatient care services, specialist care (including hospitals care), innovative dental services, advanced IVF procedures, and wellbeing solutions.
In Poland Medicover operates medical centres, wide network of hospitals, pharmacies, fertility clinics, dental centres, optical showrooms, mental health centres (including hospital), as well as fitness clubs and gyms all over Poland. In addition, we offer sports and recreation packages (Medicover Sport), as well as a modern, intuitive system for building employee engagement (Medicover Benefits).
Moreover, we offer a wide range of solutions in the area of diagnostics, including an extensive range of laboratory tests in all major areas of clinical pathology, performed for prevention, diagnosis and treatment of diseases through laboratories and blood-drawing points. Medicover in Poland is present in all the regions throughout the country.
We strive for constant growth, consequently expanding over time our portfolio of medical and non-medical services, driven by our “lifestyle medicine” approach. We are committed to increasing both the range of provided services (concentrating on prophylactics, diagnostic services, outpatient, specialist and hospital-level care) and the number of clinics to ensure better availability of services and easier access to high quality medical cate for our patients. We want to ensure that every one of our 1,3 million members will receive the highest standard of care in the right setting, at the right time and in the right manner.
As Medicover, we are the biggest Swedish employer in Poland, employing around 22,000 people, with a gender balance of approx. 70% women.
We provide healthcare services under medical subscriptions, health insurance FFS (Fee for Service).
What are the latest news of your group?
As a specialised provider of diagnostic and healthcare services, we are focusing on markets mainly in Central and Eastern Europe and India. Currently, we are present in 22 countries and conduct operations in 16 of them. We operate through two divisions – Diagnostic Services and Healthcare Services. Healthcare Services offers high-quality care based on an Integrated Healthcare Model. It is a network of 181 medical centres, 40 hospitals, 50 pharmacies, 16 mental health centres, 21 fertility clinics, 113 dental clinics, 135 gyms and 38 optic showrooms. And second division – Diagnostic Services – provides a wide range of laboratory testing in all major clinical pathology areas. The business is conducted through a network of more than 120 laboratories, 898 blood-drawing points (BDPs) and 30 clinics.
We are committed to being an active player in improving and sustaining health and wellbeing. Good Health and Wellbeing (Goal 3 of the UN SDG) is at the heart of what Medicover is and does. A positive health impact is the most important part of Medicover’s value creation.
Larger openings during the year include a new multispecialty 200-bed hospital in Bucharest (Romania)- a new multidisciplinary hospital, over 17,300m2, with the most advanced medical equipment and technology including 200 beds, seven operating theatres benefitting patients.
Another investment is a greenfield 100-bed women and child specialty hospital in HITEC City, Hyderabad (India). The facility offers 24/7 emergency services, cardiac theatre, intensive care unit, a neonatal radiology team etc. Two multidisciplinary hospitals were also inaugurated in Pune and in Navi-Mumbai, Maharashtra in the 2023 the year. Medicover also invests in new laboratory in Frankfurt (Oder). A 4,000m2 state-of-the-art laboratory with the latest technology and infrastructure. IMD Labor Oderland hosts the first automated laboratory line for microbiology “BD Kiestra” in Germany.
Another example of our recent achievements includes for e.g. introduction of innovative treatment method of Parkinson disease (MRg FUS) in Wilanów Hospital in Poland (as the only private entity in Poland performing this procedure) or opening of top-notch hybrid operating theatre in Wilanow Hospital, Warsaw to treat cardiology patients (with the most advanced equipment in the country)
What are your main concerns?
Medicover, as any other global healthcare provider, faces 2 general types of political & operational challenges – the first category, similar for healthcare providers on all markets, includes medical staff shortages, increasing wage/cost pressure, rising healthcare debt among patients and constant strive for quality in health. As a sector, we also face the necessity to educate key stakeholders and patients on the importance & role of private healthcare providers within the broader healthcare ecosystem – the impact primarily depends on the structure and model of the national healthcare sector in each country.
The second category of challenges are specific to each region / market – in this case, their severity differs from market to market. In majority of cases they include the scope of services financed by the public payer, the level of renumeration for such services and equal approach to both public & private providers.
What are your projects/perspectives for the next years?
At Medicover, we are committed to a holistic approach to health and want to continue offering comprehensive healthcare. We are continuously examining the needs of society, developing dynamically in the areas of sport, but also mental health, as well as investing in primary, specialist and hospital care or expanding our network of patient experience-oriented dental centres, optical showrooms. Moreover, the area we are exploring is lifestyle medicine. We believe that educating the public and helping them to change their habits and acquire pro-health attitudes is a valuable contribution to the entire healthcare system in Poland.
In your opinion, how can a private group like MEDICOVER, best contribute to public health in your country ?
Private healthcare is quite well developed in most markets where Medicover is present, and it functions as an effective and valued complement to publicly funded care.
When we look at Poland for example we need to emphasize that today private healthcare sector is a key element of the health care system in Poland – most medical entities in this country are private entities (over 90% of primary care and over 50% of outpatient specialized care), which use their own funds to invest in resources, modern technologies and education of medical staff to provide them to patients.
The private sector has also unique resources and experience that enables efficient functioning of the public system, such as telemedicine solutions, experience in implementing modern solutions in the field of digitalization – including medical data, digitization of occupational medicine and artificial intelligence (e.g. in radiology or infertility treatment).
Private healthcare providers also promote state-of-the art technologies and medical equipment, which are funded through direct, private investments of the private sector. Most of the unique, innovative technologies financed by the private sector are used to provide services in the public system (based on contract with the National Health Fund). In summary – we need to emphasize and educate the general public and key stakeholders on the role of private healthcare providers within the functioning system, We need to build a strong partnership between public-private healthcare system and highlight best practices from the private sector which we could share with public healthcare providers – on the local and international level.
Medicover, headquartered and listed in Stockholm, is the biggest private healthcare and diagnostics provider in Central and Eastern Europe, with 45,000+ employees working in 18 markets, including Turkey, Georgia and India.
