The Medsana clinic network has invested 4 million euros on the local market so far, with part of the money coming from the profit it derived, says Vassilis Chaniotis, the general manager of Medsana Bucharest Medical Center.

"We paid no dividends for ten years, because the entire profit was reinvested. We expanded the network because we wanted to create a brand and only after that we could talk about amortisation and return of profit," said Vassilis Chaniotis.

Medsana was set up in 1996 as the first private medical centre operating on the domestic market. "We started with 12 employees and 22 collaborator doctors, but their number increased every month. There was no such thing as private medical services at that time and no one seemed to understand why they had to pay for services that they could have obtained from the state for free. Moreover, people did not take into consideration the preventive medicine. At the mammography test for instance, 70% of the cases were patients already found having breast cancer, while the Babes-Papanicolau test was some odd-named thing for most of them," Vassilis Chaniotis also said.

Medsana owns and runs two multifunctional medical centres, one of which is located in Cotroceni and the one in Primaverii, and a clinic for in vitro fertilisation.

"The company plans include opening a new multifunctional medical centre in Ploiesti and purchasing equipment this year. Every new clinic opened entails an investment worth 1.5 million euros," explains the Medsana representative.

Medsana is part of the Greek group Athens Medical Center, which runs the largest private hospital in Greece. The company owns hospitals in Thessalonica, Athens and Piraeus, which total 2,000 beds together.

Medsana reported turnover worth 4.5 million euros in 2006, up by 50% compared with 2005, while the profit grew by 80% last year.