Lopez group joins Ayala-Mercado health venture

The Lopez group has joined the partnership of Ayala Land Inc. (ALI) and Mercado medical group through eye care and optical shop “EyeSite,” as it hopes to tap the growing middle class, which has been spending more on health services.

Asian Eye Institute of the Lopez group Thursday opened its first EyeSite branch within the QualiMed Surgery Center at ALI-operated Fairview Terraces mall in Quezon City. QualiMed is the Ayala group’s venture into the healthcare sector with Mercado General Hospital Inc. (MGHI).

The newly opened 635-square-meter mall-based surgery center is the first of its kind in the country.

Apart from being an optical shop, EyeSite will also offer other services such as adult and pediatric eye checkups and diagnostic procedures; prescreening for cataract, glaucoma, retinal and corneal diseases; cataract surgery; chalazion and pterygium removal; cornea and external diseases treatment; retina injections; and dry eye treatment.

“ALI’s partnership with the Lopez group is a valued partnership. We have extended our invitation for Asian Eye Institute to put up EyeSite branches in a couple of QualiMed hospitals and clinics opening in the next few years,” said David Y. San Pedro, ALI head for corporate planning and international business development.

Benjamin K. Liboro, president of Asian Eye Institute, said that they were very excited “to be part of QualiMed’s growth.”

Early this year, ALI and MGHI announced that they would spend about P5 billion to establish 10 hospitals, as well as 10 satellite clinics nationwide in the next five years. By the end of the period, QualiMed will have a total capacity of about 1,000 beds, San Pedro said.

QualiMed is being positioned as an “accessible and affordable” healthcare services provider.

MGHI president and chief executive Edwin M. Mercado said QualiMed and EyeSite both target to tap the “C” market or middle class, which currently comprises up to 40 percent of the country’s population.

“The budget for healthcare of the Filipino middle class has now risen to a double-digit percentage of their total spending power from just a single digit before,” Mercado pointed out.