Surgeon Ioan Stoian built a hospital with his allowance from Somalia

With the money and experience collected in the humanitarian mission from Africa, the military doctor Ioan Stoian has opened his own clinic in 1994. Today he manages a private hospital that “demands” two million euro for development and modernization. Even if it’s spoken more and more frequent about the reform of the public Romanian sanitary system, without being noticed any sign of improvement, not the same can be said about the private medical sector.   In terms in which the labour conditions from the most Romanian hospitals are at the level of the ‘80s, and the wages of the medical staff –under the limit of a modern market economy, the Romanian doctors have started to adapt. Most of the young experts have thickened the lines of the ones that emigrate in the countries with a developed medical system, and others have chosen to remain here and to open their own businesses in the medical area.  After more than 25 years of activity in the Romanian medicine, the military doctor Ioan Stoian decided to quit the management of the gynecology section within the Military Hospital Bucharest (Spitalului Militar Bucuresti), for bringing the Hippocrates vow in his own hospital, Gynecoland. Consultations, treatments and breast or genital organs surgeries, and also the hospitalization of patients. All these are possible today at Gynecoland after about 14 years of work, since the doctor has started his own business. If in ’95s he was his own employee, in a small room, specialized only in gynecological consultations, today he has a staff of 20 employees at his own clinic.

Medicine with personal money

The first investment he has made in the private domain was of 5.000 dollars, money which he managed to collect in the operation theatre from Somalia. For the mission from 1994 together with other experts from all over the world, he was co-opted for five years in the hospital of campaign within the UNO troops. “It was a phenomenal experience. In the country I had a wage of 300 dollars, and the monthly fee that I received in Somalia was of 2.200 dollars”, remembers the doctor for whom that mission was more than just money, “it was a supplementary specialization and perfecting, and it was also an opportunity to collect information about the medical labour technique at international level”. When he came back he decided to enter in the private system, and the small cabinet recorded a constantly monthly profit of 1.000 dollars, hardly after five years of activity. In 2000 he decided to expand the business and he bought a housing unit of 185 square meters at the Cosbuc square, for which he paid 22.000 dollars, and for the arrangement another 33.000.

Storz, Draeger and RENAR standard

“In 2003 I had to expand the building up to 525 square meters and to invest 220.000 euro,” Stoian says. According to him the money were invested in medical equipment (Storz laparoscopies instrument case, two performing echographs or Draeger anesthesia instrument), in the surgery room and biological lab endowed with equipments brought from Japan and France. A novelty in the domain of technique for Romanian medicine can be found in the medical arsenal of   Gynecoland. Sonoelastography, which detects the mammary cancer tumors, can be found in only five units at national level.  Accredited by the Ministry of Health, Stoian’s hospital has three departments. Consultations, for which there are two cabinets, surgery room, with four beds in the reanimation area and other eight beds for hospitalizing the patients, and also the medical analysis lab that has the standard RENAR (Romanian standard of quality for the activity in lab). At national level, among these 140 existing labs, only 25 are accredited RENAR.

Investments of two million euro

If till now Gynecoland has “suffered” investments of over 400.000 euro, the manager of the clinic will “dig out the money-box” with other two million euro for expansion and modernization.  ”After I have left the military hospital (March 1, 2008) and I’ve involved 100% in the clinic, the activity recorded a growth of 30% against the similar period of last year”, Stoian mentioned. In these terms, he decided to develop the hospitalization base by increasing the number of reserves, of the consultancy rooms, and also by setting up the National Centre for Breast Diagnosis. ”Because there are five specialists that deal with breast medical problems, and the patient doesn’t know where to go first, I’ve decided to set up this centre, unique in Romania, in collaboration with endocrinologists and oncological experts, the manager says. In what concerns the business that he manages, Stoian is proud to boost with a turnover of 400.000  euro, recorded last year, and for this year he appreciates that it would double.

Over 100 surgeries yearly

Since 2003 till the present, at Gynecoland were undergone over 500 chirurgical interventions (perineum fracture, genital esthetic operations, uterus and breast). Now, here are undergone over 30 surgeries of this type monthly, and the number of consultancies is over 600. According to the manager, the costs of these types of surgeries are still low, comparatively with other EU member states, and the quality of the surgery is the same. For a consultancy, a patient has to take from the pocket between 100 and 150 lei, while the surgeries oscillate between 500 and 900 euro. For the hospitalization (medical care, medication, food and accommodation) the costs raise to 100 euro daily. If the doctor has raised the hospital on his own, he recently managed to develop collaboration with the Romanian state, through the Bucharest National House for Health. This discounts the lab analysis for the patients that have public health insurance.