Bangkok Hospital Medical Centre plans to build a third hospital in Phnom Penh now that its two existing facilities in Cambodia are operating at full capacity.
CEO Chatree Duangnet recently said the new hospital would be of a similar size to and offer much the same services as Bangkok Hospital in Soi Soonvijai, Bangkok.
The company expects the third hospital to complete construction and become operational by the end of next year.
The investment budget for the new facility has yet to be finalised, he said.
Bangkok Hospital is also planning to open medical centres in Vietnam and Laos in the second half of this year, following the success of the first such clinic in Burma, said Chatree.
The number of Burmese patients coming to Bangkok Hospital in Thailand in the first half of this year increased by 40 per cent year on year.
As regards investment in Thailand, Bangkok Hospital will allocate Bt700 million to set up a hospital in Khao Yai, in Nakhon Ratchasima province. It will be a medium-size facility with 60 to 70 beds, and the company expects to complete construction by the end of this year.
The CEO said earlier that Bangkok Hospital had purchased land on Mitraphab Road adjacent to the Outlet Village, and that it was designing the new hospital.
Chatree said foreign patient numbers, particularly those from the Middle East, had rebounded to the normal level since the end of the political mayhem in May.
For example, patient numbers from the United Arab Emirates and Qatar in the first half of the year increased by 5 per cent and 105 per cent, respectively.
Bualuang Securities forecast in its research that the net profit of Bangkok Dusit Medical Services (BMDS), which owns Bangkok Hospital, in the third and fourth quarters of this year would be markedly higher than in the second quarter, when the hospital was affected by the political turmoil. Besides, it is the high season for Middle East patients visiting Thailand for medical purposes.
The brokerage estimated BMDS's second-quarter net profit at Bt312 million, its lowest quarterly earnings this year. This would represent 7-per-cent year-on-year growth, but a drop of 59 per cent quarter on quarter.
Spending per patient increased by 7 per cent in the first quarter and 5 per cent in the second quarter, despite a decline in the number of patients. This was largely due to a rise in the number of patients visiting the Kingdom for the treatment of complex diseases.