A POLISH healthcare company is set to open a small day surgery hospital in Dublin city centre, as well as new health clinics in Galway and Waterford.
EMC Healthcare Ltd opened its first medical centre at Parnell Square in Dublin last summer and plans to expand across the Republic to meet the growing demand for its services.
The number of Polish doctors registered with the Irish Medical Council has increased from 103 in July 2006 to 190 in January of this year, with a number of applications pending.
The clinics are staffed by GPs and specialists in paediatrics, gynaecology, dentistry, urology, gastroenterology and other specialities.
Mr Darek Jamroziak, director of the Dublin clinic, said the clinic in Waterford city would be opened in the next six weeks while the small EMC hospital in Dublin city centre was due to open within the next four months.
"This will be a small hospital with an out-patient clinic. It will be used for smaller medical procedures and patients will usually only stay for a day or one night," he explained.
Mr Jamroziak said he hoped the cost of procedures at the EMC clinic would be a little cheaper than private procedures in Ireland.
Although the cost of visiting the health clinic is the same as the cost of visiting an Irish GP, he said the advantage for patients is that there is no waiting list.
"People can come in from the street and talk with the GP or with a specialist if they need to do so. We have 13 doctors working at our Dublin clinic, including consultant surgeons and gastroenterologists who are already registered with the Irish Medical Council," he said.
The company also plans to open a clinic in Cork, but so far they have been unable to find a suitable city centre location.
"There is a lot of demand for our services at the moment, which is why we are expanding. About 35 per cent of our patients are Polish and another 35 per cent are Russian and Lithuanian. 15 to 20 per cent are Irish, but they usually come to see the specialists, because they have the same qualifications as Irish specialists, but there are no waiting lists to be seen," said Mr Jamroziak.
The EMC centres offer standard GP services for children and adults as well as a wide range of additional services including laboratory diagnostics, diagnostics with use of ultrasound imaging, dental digital X-ray, gastroscopy and surgical and gynaecological procedures.
The public company, which is quoted on the Warsaw Stock Exchange, operates five private hospitals in Poland and 10 outpatient clinics similar to the Dublin facility.
