Property group to invest in private hospital
Property and hotels group Great Eagle is to step into the private hospital sector for the first time by providing medical services at the financially stricken Cancer Rehabilitation Centre in Nam Long.
The company is liaising with the Anti-Cancer Society, the charitable group that runs the hospital, to provide all-round cancer services, including screening, surgery and treatment. It will also invest in new medical equipment and operating theatres at the centre.
The Jockey Club-funded facility, which mainly provides rehabilitation services such as post-operative care and palliative management for the terminally ill using Western and Chinese medicine, has been suffering from low occupancy.
Great Eagle chairman and managing director Dr Lo Ka-shui said the company wanted to turn the rehabilitation centre into a 'comprehensive cancer specialist hospital'.
'We believe that with a good business model, the project will be financially sustainable,' Lo said. 'We also want to make it a centre of excellence, which will be useful in the development of medical tourism.'
Lo said he could not give details of the new services because the group had yet to sign a contract with the society, which it is expected to do within a few months.
Great Eagle is also eyeing a Wong Chuk Hang site to build a new private hospital under the latest government blueprint to increase the supply of private beds.
The group is among 30 parties that have submitted expressions of interest to the government, which has proposed four sites for new private hospitals. Twelve of them are interested in the Wong Chuk Hang site.
Lo, a cardiologist and former chairman of the Hospital Authority, said his group's co-operation with the Anti-Cancer Society would help his team to build experience.
The Cancer Rehabilitation Centre is the city's first non-profit rehabilitation centre for cancer patients and one of the city's 13 private hospitals.
Since opening in October 2008, it has suffered financial difficulties, with an average occupancy rate for its 40-odd beds of only 50 per cent. About half its patients are referred by public hospitals.
The centre was converted from the former Nam Long Hospital with a HK$109.23 million donation from the Jockey Club to cover renovation costs and two years of operation. The funding will dry up in July.
Society chairman Dr Ko Wing-man said the hospital was making a loss of more than HK$500,000 a month and had been trying to find new sources of funding.
Ko said Great Eagle would provide 'management services' to the hospital.
'The centre will remain an Anti-Cancer Society hospital. The rehabilitation centre will remain intact; the new development is we will use some space to develop screening and treatment services, which will be managed by Great Eagle,' Ko said.
'With the new screening services and surgery services for some mild cases, we can identify more potential users of our rehabilitation services.'
Ko said the new services would be in line with the society's mission on cancer prevention by providing health screening to the public.
Health spending
Cancer Rehabilitation Centre opened in 2008 and has about 40 beds
The amount the Jockey club provided for setting up the centre and its first two years of operation, in HK dollars: $109m
