Fortis steps further in Hoan My’s operations

The programme will ultimately provide better care for patients

“The scope of the collaboration includes training of doctors in new techniques and complex surgeries, training of nurses and paramedics, intensive care unit protocols for improved post-operative care, chest pain pathway for urgent care, acute stroke treatment guidelines in the golden hour, to improve clinical outcomes,” said cardiac surgeon Krishna Iyer.

Iyer, executive director at Fortis - Escorts Heart Institute - a premier cardiac hospital in India, started the programme at Fortis Hoan My Saigon Premier Hospital in Ho Chi Minh City. Fortis Hoan My Medical Corp. CEO Dr Colin Koh said: “This collaboration will help improve the quality and complexity of cardiac work done across all hospitals in the Ho Chi Minh City network.”

“This will also upgrade clinical services in Vietnam,” he added. Iyer also examined patients with complex congenital heart defects and gave his advice at the private Hoan My hospital.

He conducted a cardiology continuing medical education session for a team of 45 doctors, including Hoan My doctors and ones from other private and public hospitals in Vietnam. A World Health Organisation report published in 2011 said 39.4 per cent of deaths recorded in Vietnam in 2008 were caused by cardiovascular diseases.

Fortis Hoan My is the first medical corporation to run a private hospital chain in Vietnam currently with nine facilities nationwide in Ho Chi Minh City, Dalat, Danang, Hue, Can Tho and Ca Mau, with more than 800 beds altogether. Fortis Healthcare last August bought 65 per cent of Hoan My stake at $64 million to become the majority stakeholder in the hospital chain.

Asked why selecting Fortis, Hoan My chairman Dr Nguyen Huu Tung said: “At that time four companies wanted to buy into Hoan My, I chose Fortis because it’s not merely a financial investor. It supported my strategy to develop my hospital chain across Vietnam and it agreed to pay reasonable prices to buy stakes owned by VinaCapital and Deutsche Bank in my corporation.

“It also agreed to partner with us in improving technologies and hospital services and management for our expansion plans,” he said. Hoan My is building a medical university and an experimental hospital in Ho Chi Minh City, to open in 2015, Tung said.

Fortis Healthcare is present in Australia, Canada, Dubai, Hong Kong, India, Mauritius, New Zealand, Singapore, Sri Lanka and Vietnam.