JULY 2019.
Medpark International Hospital being the biggest and most popular private healthcare provider in Republic of Moldova in the summertime faces increased demand for medical services. The structure of patients in summertime has some specificities. The biggest outpatient flow in summer are citizens of Moldova that work abroad and come for one-month vacation and usually in this vacation they are trying to solve all medical issues that have been postponed for 1 year.
In 2018 only for this category of population Medpark provided daily around 15 checkups, beside regular 10. Medical tourism is intensified in summertime due to the flow of patients that are coming for plastic/esthetic surgeries and procedures, again because of vacation people have some time to spend on private issues. Third patient flow are pregnant women coming for baby delivery. In summertime public maternities close units for renovation works and deep cleaning, thus Medpark maternity has to face double patient flow in august. For me as operational director is a challenge to organize all departments to face this burden of addressability.
Dr Aliona Bahnarel, COO
At national level
Olga Schiopu, CEO at Medpark International Hospital
What are the major challenges some of your hospital members are facing during summertime?
Summertime for private hospitals in Moldova presents two strictly seasonal challenges.
First of them is sudden increase of gastrointestinal infections morbidity rate. For private hospitals, that in most of the cases do not have specialized infectious diseases units, it is a challenge. Hospitals have to organize timely and efficient transfer of this patients’ category, in most of the cases pediatric cases, to specialized departments.
Second issue is double outpatient flow in month of august, month that is preferred for vacations by everyone. Moldova has according to official statistics more than 300.000 work emigrants’, this is almost ¼ of population at working age and vast majority of this people are coming home for summer vacation. In latest 5-6 years there is an increasing trends of health checkup in this population and this of course is a very good trend showing higher health responsibility and awareness, but for private medical facilities this is a real challenge. The private hospital has to find a way to keep most of medical staff at work in august in order to satisfy this doubled demand.
Does your Health Ministry have implemented a response plan to cope with heatwaves for instance, and/or your federation a set of recommendations to your hospital members ?
The heatwaves in summertime are something regular in Republic of Moldova, extreme temperatures occur each season. The Ministry of Health in order to cope with this phenomenon each June is launching awareness campaign for general population which contains instructions and advices regarding behavior, nutrition, hydration. For specific categories of population like cardiac patients, young children and elderly there are more detailed, adjusted for patients’ group advices. In the periods of extreme temperatures Ministry of Health organize tents and water distribution in city centers, mobile health points, increase the number of ambulances on duty.
