The UK’s National Health Service, And Kaiser Permanente Lead The Global Hospitals And Clinics Market

Hospitals and outpatient centers are medical facilities that provide diagnostic and medical treatment to patients with a wide range of medical conditions. Clinics offer medical care or treatment that does not require any overnight stay in a hospital or medical facility. Outpatient care may be carried out in a medical office or at a hospital. The global hospitals and clinics market is highly fragmented, with a large number of small players. The top ten competitors in the market made up to 6.94% of the total market in 2018. This small share is attributed to the local operations of the healthcare service providers. This is expected to slightly change during the forecast period between 2018 and 2022, as players are trying to expand their presence in different geographies through acquisitions and mergers. National Health Service was the largest competitor with 3.38% of the market in 2018, followed by Kaiser Permanente with 1.70%. Other major players in the hospitals and clinics market include Fresenius Medical Care AG & Co. KGaA, DaVita Inc., Universal Health Services, Inc., Mayo Clinic, Cleveland Clinic Health System, The Johns Hopkins Health System Corporation, University Of Maryland Medical Center, and MD Anderson Cancer Center.

National Health Service, the largest competitor in the global hospitals and clinics market, is the UK’s publicly funded health system created under the UK’s National Health Service Act. NHS England, NHS Scotland, and NHS Wales were established in 1948. It has more than 1.5 million employees. The NHS hospitals are involved in providing extensive health care services and outpatient care. The primary services of NHS include antenatal screening, routine screenings, and treatment for long-term conditions such as transplants, emergency treatment, and end-of-life care.

The NHS’s growth strategy aims at making treatment more feasible and continuously helping people with plans aiming at improving treatment. The NHS Long Term Plan was initiated to decrease the number of hospital appointments by 30%. As a result of this, patients with arthritis and other related conditions received treatment by GPs (general physicians) without visiting hospitals. This initiative by NHS enables patients to book appointments with the specialists without actually visiting their clinics, making the treatment process more convenient.

Kaiser Permanente was the second largest competitor in the hospitals and clinics market. Kaiser Permanente provides healthcare services and not-for-profit health plans. It was founded in 1945 and is headquartered in Oakland, California, United States. It has operations in California, Colorado, Georgia, Hawaii, Maryland, Virginia, Oregon, and Washington DC. Kaiser Permanente’s growth strategy aims to expand its operations in the US by building new medical centers. For instance, in 2018, the company opened 12 medical office buildings across the country. In the same year, the company announced its decision to expand its number of medical centers to 30 by adding 5 new medical centers in Washington, US, by 2020.