Hospital managers are still keen to expand their business this year

Reporter: Dimas Andi, Vina Elvira | Editor: Handoyo.

KONTAN.CO.ID – JAKARTA. The hospital business in Indonesia is still quite passionate in the midst of the pandemic. In the midst of busy treating patients who had boomed when Covid-19 cases increased, hospital managers still carried out their business expansion agenda throughout this year.

Secretary General of the Indonesian Private Hospital Association (ARSSI) Ichsan Hanafi said business expansion activities such as the addition of new hospitals were not affected by the Covid-19 pandemic. In fact, the existence of a pandemic has made the need for health facilities or facilities increase.

“Hospital managers see the demographic conditions of the Indonesian population as an opportunity for expansion,” he said, Thursday (9/9).

Ichsan said the growth in the number of new hospitals this year could be in the range of 3%–5%. The number of hospitals throughout Indonesia reaches around 3,000 units, of which 65% are private hospitals.

He hopes that in the future investors will aggressively build hospitals outside Java, especially in Eastern Indonesia. Equitable distribution of the number of hospitals in all regions is very important considering that access to health facilities is the right of every community.

Also Read: Here are a number of Mitra Keluarga (MIKA) business expansions that will be carried out in 2021

Therefore, ARSSI hopes that the government will provide incentives for business actors who want to work on new hospital projects in Eastern Indonesia. “Most of them in Eastern Indonesia are government-owned hospitals and regional general hospitals (RSUD). The construction of private hospitals is not as massive as in Java,” he said.

One company that is expanding to add a new hospital network is PT Mitra Keluarga Karyasehat Tbk (MIKA).

Head of Investor Relations MIKA Aditya Widjaja said, currently MIKA has realized the process of building two of the three new hospitals that were announced. The two hospitals are scheduled to start operating in the third quarter to the fourth quarter of 2022.

According to Kontan’s records, the two new hospitals are located in Cikarang, West Java and South Tangerang. Each of these hospitals has a capacity of up to 200 beds. However, at the start of the operation, MIKA will only open about 50 to 70 beds first.

In addition, MIKA is also working on the construction of another hospital located in Tegal, Central Java. Aditya said that currently his party is still having problems with the licensing process. If the process can be completed soon, then the construction of this third new hospital can be executed at the end of 2021 or at the latest early next year.

“We can’t confirm the third one, if there is a target, we can do it this year. It’s just that there are still problems in the licensing process. So, if the permit can be completed as soon as possible, if possible this year, we will also execute it this year or early next year,” he said, Thursday (9/9).

In order to smooth out the expansion plan, MIKA has prepared capital expenditure funds or capital expenditure (capex) of Rp 350 billion-Rp 360 billion. As for the first semester of 2021, MIKA’s capex absorption has only reached 28 percent or around Rp. 99 billion of this year’s total capex.