Medicover plans to build a general hospital in Bucharest, starting in the spring of 2010.
Meanwhile, it has recently upped its stake in Damien’s hospital in Warsaw to a majority, and is close to completing its 180 bed general hospital in Warsaw. Ryan denies rumours that the project has come in massively over cost: "The hospital will be completed to budget for €43m."
Ryan says he will fill it with "anyone who has cash".
He has no plans to work with the public sector: "They would bite our arm off, but wouldn’t pay enough."
Yet he admits that Medicover’s 300,000 strong healthcare subscription network in Poland won’t be enough to fill all the beds in the new facility.
Medicover is also about to launch an insurance policy in Poland, which would reimburse holders for out-of-pocket expenses incurred when buying prescription drugs: "Poland has the highest level of out-of-pocket costs for prescriptions in the region, with the consumer paying over half the price."
But he remains skeptical as to whether more general healthcare insurance will take off in Poland: "The average Pole would rather sell his car or take out a loan on his property to pay for healthcare."
Medicover has a similar subscription operation in Romania, which Ryan says is now 60% of the size of Poland, and smaller subscription operations in Hungary and the Czech republic. The company has just opened a clinic in Slovakia. "International clients were very keen we opened in Bratislava," he explains.
Ryan says that Medicover achieved sales of around €250m last year – although recent currency chaos will bring down the reported number. That figure includes a large lab operation in Eastern Germany and a nascent lab business in the Ukraine.
