Health Care -
A HEALTHY EXPORT
PRODUCT
working relations
The chairman of the Beijing International Toronto Hospital, Wilson
Parasiuk, is full of praise for the way Rabobank's health care team
handled the underwriting of this unique project. As well as
compliments, this former Minister of Health in Canada's Province
of Manitoba has advice for a bank whose goal is to become a
global player in the sector.
Wilson Parasiuk, chairman of
the Beijing International
Toronto Hospital - full of praise
for our health care team.
The Canadian Group Interhealth Canada
(China) Inc. (ICCI) was contacted hy our
I long Kong office after they had heard in
the market about a Canadian health care
group that had beaten more than 80 other
international firms in a bid for the
construction and exploitation of the first-
ever private health care facility in China.
The mandate given to the Canadians is
unique in that it not only provides for the
operating of this innovative facility, but the
administrators have also managed to secure
agreement on the unrestricted importation
of the kind of drugs and technology taken
for granted in the developed world.
Rabobank Hong Kong was able to engineer
the debt financing of the project and at the
same time gain high profile entry into a
very promising market. (See deal of the
month, What's NewS6/97).
HEALTHY RATING
The Beijing International Toronto Hospital
project is the first of ICCI's ventures. ICCI
was established by a consortium of
Canadian health care companies trying to
sell their products internationally. This
means potential customers have access to a
superb network of the best and brightest
that Canada has to offer in health care
services,' says Parasiuk. And, it appears,
Canada's best and brightest is about the
best you can get anywhere in the world.
'The United Nations had rated Canada the
best place to live four years in succession,'
he continues. 'One of the reasons is the fact
that our health care system is probably the
best in the world.' And unlike its southern
neighbour, which Parasiuk says offers the
Rolls Royce of health care to a privileged
few and a bare minimum to no less than 35
million of its people, services in Canada are
available to all. 'As a Canadian,' he says,
'it's just shocking that an industrialized
country can't cover its population in terms
of health care.'
COOPERATIVE APPROACH
It is Canada's reputation as a quality
health care provider which Parasiuk
believes has contributed to ICCI's success
in its endeavours in China. What Parasiuk
and his colleagues believe they are offering
is an established track record of best
practice and a commitment to the concept
of cooperation between the public and
private sectors. 'At home,' he explains,
'around 72 percent of health care is
publicly funded; the remaining 28 percent
is privately funded. Our system is that
basic care is covered and you have choice
in terms of additions. In contrast, only 30
percent is publicly funded in China even
though it is a "socialist country". The
reason is that it is a corporate-ist country if
you understand what I mean. You get your
health care from your employer. Let me
give you an example. There are 3.5 million
railway workers in China. This means
their children will be born in railway
hospitals, will go to railway schools and
the family will live in a railway house. You
get a railway pension. In the 1990s, these
state-owned enterprises have a horrible
problem. They cannot really lay people off
even if there's no work because their whole
life depends on their employer.'
BASIC CARE
Getting round these problems is a major
task for the near-future and, Parasiuk
believes, the Chinese see projects like the
Beijing International Toronto Hospital at
least as a means of contributing to the
solution. He comments: 'Some of the key
people in our team are Chinese-Canadians
who know both countries well. We're able
to communicate at all levels with the
Chinese and we are able to be very candid
with them. We've said frankly that while
they have made tremendous progress in
many areas, health care isn't one of them in
the sense that they were basically inverting
the pyramid. In a good health care system,
you focus on public health and work up to
the top of the pyramid in terms of high
technology. As soon as we started talking
to the Chinese about the project, they
began asking about magnetic resonance
imagers and that type of technology. Our
response was: Let's get hospitals clean
before we start worrying about expensive
high-tech equipment. That's where you
have to start, with the basics.'
ECONOMIC ARGUMENT
The fact that the Beijing facility will be
anything but basic and anything but
accessible to ordinary people in the capital
(target patiënt group is expatriates and high
net-worth Chinese) is shrugged off by
Parasiuk. 'It's an economie argument," he
emphasizes. 'We say that in order for the
Chinese to better develop their economy,
they have to make sure that highly
educated and innovative people are coming'
in to manage the joint ventures that are
being established. These people will not
come unless they have pretty good housing,
education that does not penalize their kids,