Hospitals and healthcare are definitely on the reliable growth pace. Current industry trend is really reverse to what you would expect, being new to this sector – this is shortage of nurses and medical professionals, meaning that it is rather challenge to find certified applicants, and not really to get new contracts from healthcare organizations. This trends requires the investors to look at healthcare staffing agency from the perspective of its popularity among nurses community – getting nurses opinions on which company is “better” – in the senses of being more friendly, offering better conditions, including faster paychecks issuance. As medical staffing companies actually sells services in the form of recruiting fees, plus W2 services to their medical temps – you should feel the nature of the risks and the opportunities: they are at the management experience, passion and competence side, not in real material assets, such as plants, production tools or even buildings. Let’s try to see the pro and contra arguments:
1. Economy Cycles: Booms and Recessions – healthcare is always in demand, so it should be considered stable and not really exposed to economy cycling. This statement might be considered as a trend, however some companies will suffer from bad economy, but in our opinion mostly due to the recession “atmosphere”
2. US population “aging” – this is similar to what was long times seen in Europe and Japan, where immigration offset (or even new young immigrants inflow reversed the aging process) was not as active as in United States. Senior population requires more medicine attention and potentially will increase the workload for healthcare staffing organizations, who supply hospitals, nursing homes and retirement communities with nurses and medical doctors
Healthcare In Spain
Wednesday, February 24th, 2010Whenever we think of healthcare in a foreign land, we immediately think, will it be expensive and of the same quality as what we are used to? In fact, the quality of healthcare in Spain is excellent and many doctors and nurses speak English.
The health service is run along a two-tier system similar to that in the UK. The first tier is the National Health Service and the second is the private health care sector, which is covered by health insurance. Whether you are a native of Spain or a British citizen, if you are making social security contributions then you immediately qualify for the National Health Service. Otherwise, it is best to have some kind of private health insurance. We have personally experienced both sides of the Spanish healthcare system.
Private Health Care
When we first moved to Spain, we had very little experience of the lifestyle and that included provision for healthcare. As we were both reasonably healthy and because our knowledge of the language was still limited, we were somewhat scared of approaching social security offices and medical centres to gain more information, putting it off for another day.
However, with the rise in older men developing problems with their prostrate and my awareness of prostrate cancer, I decided I needed to see a doctor for a check up. Not being eligible for the Spanish health service at the time meant I had to go private. I had this dreaded feeling that this is going to cost a fortune. Not necessarily so.
The couple that we rented our villa from in Mojacar recommended an English speaking lady doctor in Garrucha and we found to our surprise her fee was only 40 euros per consultation. On my first visit, all my details were entered into the computer and then a comprehensive examination was done including arrangements for a blood test.
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