Coronavirus spurs Ping An Good Doctor to hire hundreds of doctors in Indonesia

Ping An Healthcare and Technology Co

24/03/2020 09:23

By Yingzhi Yang and Brenda Goh
    BEIJING/SHANGHAI, March 24 (Reuters) - China's Ping An Good
Doctor  1833.HK  said its healthcare venture with ride hailing
firm Grab plans to hire hundreds of doctors in Indonesia after
the spread of the coronavirus caused demand for online
consultations in the country to almost double.
    GrabHealth, launched in Indonesia in late 2019, now conducts
nearly 10,000 consultations daily compared to between 5,000 and
6,000 a day prior to the outbreak, Good Doctor CEO Wang Tao told
Reuters in an interview.
    "The hiring plan is fluid and will depend on user demand,"
Wang said. The company declined to say how many doctors it
currently has in Indonesia.
    Indonesia, which has a population of over 270 million and
the biggest economy in Southeast Asia, has seen the number of
reported coronavirus infections climb to 686 while 55 people
have died.
    In China, where the virus first emerged, the outbreak has
prompted residents, either worried about coronavirus symptoms or
too scared to visit hospitals for other ailments, to flock to
platforms such as Good Doctor, Baidu Inc's  BIDU.O  Wenyisheng
and Alibaba Health Information Technology Ltd  0241.HK .
    The Good Doctor platform, which is China's largest, has said
it had 3 million monthly paying users at the end of last year.
    It saw downloads jump 1,186% in the week to Jan. 26 from the
previous week, according to data from App Annie. In its latest
earnings filing, the company also said the average number of
daily new registrations between Jan. 22-Feb. 6 was ten times
greater than first 21 days of January but did not provide
specific new registration figures.
    Wang added that online consultations requests from overseas
Chinese since Jan. 1 have hit almost 10 million.
    He said Good Doctor is now aiming to roll out an English
version in the second quarter to meet demand from English
speakers in China and users in English-speaking countries.
    It will also launch online medical services in Japan that
will include doctor consultations with SoftBank Group  9984.T 
in the second quarter. SoftBank has invested in Good Doctor and
the two formed a healthcare joint venture last year. 
    "As countries including Indonesia and Japan learn from
China's experience in dealing with the outbreak, I hope their 
local governments will support the online health industry as the
Chinese government has done," Wang said. 
    Longer-term, Good Doctor is looking to gradually proceed
with plans formed with Grab to expand within Southeast Asia in
countries such as Singapore, Thailand, Vietnam and the
Philippines, he added. 
   

 (Reporting by Yingzhi Yang in Beijing and Brenda Goh in
Shanghai; Editing by Edwina Gibbs)
 ((Yingzhi.Yang@thomsonreuters.com; +861056692133;))