Private sector share of diagnostic imaging in Europe
For this week’s infographic, we offer a sneak peak at the private sector’s share of diagnostic imaging in 13 major markets in Europe and the GCC. It is a snippet of our in-progress HBI Intelligence report on diagnostic imaging, which will be accessible to HBI Intelligence users shortly.
The graph belows shows HBI estimates on the privately-provided portion of diagnostic imaging in 12 European countries and Saudi Arabia. The private sector includes hospitals, outpatient clinics and departmental outsourcing and imaging includes all types although some figures might be primarily based on more advanced modalities like MRI, CT and nuclear medicine.
In the Nordics, the outsourcing markets remain relatively limited according to local operator estimates. Previous estimates said private providers like Aleris and Unilabs did around 10% of imaging but more recent conversations indicate it is definitely single-digits.
Next, we have some CEE countries where public funding for privately-provided imaging has historically been limited (Croatia, Hungary) or recently fallen (Poland). In Portugal, the private hospital sector is a strong player in imaging and primary care doctors can refer patients on to private sector providers for imaging tests with “vouchers. In Saudi Arabia, a medtech source estimates that the private sector does 40% of imaging scans although a smaller share of equipment, which is uses more efficiently.
In Spain and Italy, public funding constraints have funnelled cash-ready (Italy) or PMI policy-holding (Spain) patients to private providers in what are both predominantly outpatient sectors. Public outsourcing is a substantial minority of the private imaging market in Spain, but falling. In Finland, the public sector has used private capacity substantially and the Troika of Terveystalo, Mehilainen and Pihlajalinna are all strong players.
And insurance-based markets Germany, France and Switzerland. The first two are mainly outpatient while Switzerland is predominantly in the hospital sector.
We would welcome your thoughts on this story. Email your views to Cameron Murray or call 0207 183 3779.
