Within Healthcare Sector Profits, Management Challenges Abound

Sunway Medical Centre CEO Lau Beng Long discusses:     - Profit turnaround;   - Drivers to the Malaysian healthcare sector;   - Whether size and scale matter - IHH - Apollo - etc - versus Sunway: sole hospital;   - Reports of poor quality of medical graduates - issues;   - Doctors as freelancers: whether this is problematic;   - Costs - salaries - rising wage inflation - extent affecting P&L;   - Management of doctor egos - not a doctor;   - Healthcare industry reform - rising healthcare costs - burgeoning out-of-pocket (OOP) private health payments;   - EBITDA margins - comparison with other local and regional hospitals;   - Tucked away in the division named ‘strategic investments’ among a gamut of other businesses (leisure, quarrying, building materials, trading and manufacturing -  whether invisible;   - Whether with the massive potential in healthcare there are concerted plans to spin out, build into a bigger player.