Medicine & Liberty : Network of liberty oriented doctors

Medicine & Liberty
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A Winter Journey to the Market in Tbilisi


 

No tanks. No ruins. Business as usual in Tbilisi. When I say business, I mean free markets.

Georgia's radical move to market in healthcare is rapidly bearing fruits. I visited the brand new Aversi Clinic in Tbillisi. Opened in November 08, this private hospital offers a wide range of services, from genetic testing to lithotripsy and laser eye surgery. Its technical equipment was outstanding while the spotless cleanliness would make even Swiss hospitals blush with envy.

The Aversi group was founded an entrepreneurial Georgian paediatrician, Paata Kurtanidze, who teamed with an economist and moved from prescription to successful drugstore distribution and industrial production of medicines. The next step was the fast paced development of a fully private "state of the art" hospital network. Five modern Aversi hospitals have opened within the past two years, while more than 100 drugstores and medical outlets currently serve 1'200 000 Georgian customers a month!

Aversi not only keeps the very reasonable prices of its services tuned to market, a confirmed recipe for success, it also caters for low income customers  through discount actions and engages in generous charitable operations: Aversi has offered free cataract surgery  to poor patients and has supplied socially deprived children with free medicine. It is one of the motors of a generous health voucher grant action targeted at 196'000 pensioneers living in Tbiisi and designed to help them cover part of their  medical expenses! 

Aversi's successful business model demonstrates how in an unhampered medical market, the natural alliance of entrepreneurial medicine with creative pharmaceutical industry yields high quality, ethical, patient-centered medical service accessible to rich and poor. And when I say high quality, I mean high quality even by Swiss standards. If you don’t believe me: invest in  a visit to the market in Tbilisi. We'll organize the tour with pleasure.

Alphonse Crespo MD

December 17, 2008