“European networks are not that concerned about Ukraine right now, they don’t want to invest money here,” he says. “It’s a mistake if you ask me. When you are coming in as an early bird you have to take a risk. Some companies are making some small projects like genetic laboratories – but those are not big investments. Maybe they are just checking the market.”

Amsel sees better opportunities in large hospitals and specialist centres, rather than clinics and laboratories, because the former are able to treat larger numbers of patients more efficiently. He concedes that issues like corruption and a lack of infrastructure have deterred investors in the past – but this is changing, he says.

Historically, Ukrainian citizens able to pay out of pocket have looked abroad for treatment but he says that increasingly the Ukrainian middle classes want to be treated in their own countries, but with European expertise and medicine.

He explains: “So the local businessmen are investing heavily in a network of clinics and hospitals. I’m sure they will organise but at the moment this is a difficult area for them and they don’t know how to do it. It’s not commodities or real estate, it’s medicine and hospitals, which is not easy to run.”

Amsel praises the reforms, saying that they create a situation where the government is now spending money on the treatment of patients and not the maintenance of hospitals. Under the system, doctors in small, local GP surgeries will be paid a fixed amount for every family registered to them, while hospitals will be paid according to a per-treatment price list that has not yet been revealed by the government. “Now this is easier said than done,” he adds. “This is a reform that has to in principle change the way that the hospital and the management thinks.” Both public and private operators will be treated on an equal footing under the new system.

Amsel’s main worry is that it will take at least five years for the government to adequately compensate the care providers. “The budget will be limited and the prices that they announce will be low, at least at the beginning. But private healthcare insurance will come in and cover those treatments or parts of treatments that are not covered by the government.”

Four institutions are already working on a pilot. “Now they are behaving like a business. The hospital is a business and not just a service provider. They are charging for different surgeries and publishing the prices over the internet. People know how much they have to pay, everything is much more official.” Official, more transparent – and less corrupt, reading between the lines.

Amstel is preparing Lissod for the extra-patients that will come with the health reform and is expecting to be treating 3,500-4,000 new patients each year.

He says he wants to use the reform to add a paediatrics oncology hospital alongside his current oncology hospital, Lissod. Only one public hospital ran this kind of treatment in the past, he said, and before now it was not economically viable for him to set one up. He hopes that the government will start to compensate, partly at least, private providers for these specialised expansions. And if not, that investors will step in.

“We are looking for partners to develop, not just financially. We want to speak to medical companies that have an added value. They are smart partners and investors.”