Ahmet E. Usta is the Hungary country director for Istanbul-based healthcare provider MLP Care. One of its two hospital brands, Liv Hospitals, acquired the Duna Medical Center in 2023, and he moved to Budapest to run its operations a few months later. He must be doing something right: the clinic now sees 50,000 patients a year.
“We took it over in October ’23. I came in February ’24, and in that last year, patient revenue has almost doubled.”
That is based partly on adding more doctors and extending opening hours so more patients can be seen at their convenience. When asked how many staff he has, the answer is immediate: 210. And how many is he aiming at?
“Over 300, if we were at full potential, but by the end of the year, I think it will be 222-225. I want to grow, and we are growing.”
The next area of expansion might seem surprising, given Hungary’s reputation for dentistry and the relatively common phenomenon of dental tourism here, but the fact remains that, until now, Liv Duna has not been able to serve that market.
“Seeing a huge opportunity for growth, we are starting our dental unit next month, and we are also planning to launch a state-of-the-art neurology, dementia and Alzheimer’s center. We are hopeful that it will be a primary driver in our revenues,” Usta says. It is not the only area of expansion at the facility.
“In orthopedics, we made a robotic device investment, and that is giving us good results. So far, we’ve done about 100 robotic cases, and now we are starting trauma and other services in that area,” he explains.
“While maternity numbers are not growing in the country (indeed, the population is shrinking), we will add gynecological oncology to enhance the service. Overall, our plan is to add new units and improve the brand reputation.”
The latter point is interesting. Since MLP took over an existing clinic rather than building one from scratch, potential staff and patients may already have a preconceived notion about the facility on the Pest shore of the Danube.
“Everybody has opinions based on what was there before. It takes time for people to change their minds and adopt new ideas. It’s quite challenging to move the status quo. So, part of the approach is also adding new quality doctors, and then, by word-of-mouth, spreading it to the people.”
He adds that another target for this year is to increase international medical tourism. However, finding the quantity of quality staff required to ramp up services has proved unexpectedly challenging.
“That’s a huge problem,” Usta admits. Much of it is due to a lack of labor mobility. The country manager says he has interesting work to offer in a good environment and with a competitive salary, but still, he struggles.
“I would say 80-90% of it would be that they don’t want to move. They’re happy enough where they are. [.…] It’s also a cultural thing, I guess.”
Is there a danger that not being able to source enough quality staff will hinder Liv Duna’s ability to grow?
“Yes, to grow, definitely. I need at least one or two full-time physicians in every department. Let’s say I have an international patient from Bosnia requesting a consultation, a second opinion. Where’s the doctor? I’m trying to reach the doctor, and he answers the next day. By then, that patient has already found another doctor somewhere else,” the country director says.
The attitude, he admits, has somewhat surprised him; the Turkish approach is very different.
“You should fight for the patient. I grew up like that. The most difficult thing was convincing people to walk into the hospital. Once they are in, they cannot go anywhere else. We have to fix all their problems, but you can only do it if you have the professionals, the doctors, and many of them are reluctant to move out of the public system. They don’t want to move.”
MLP’s background is in the provision of complex hospital care. It runs hospitals as one-stop shops where patients can address all their medical needs. Under the current medical regime in Hungary, that’s not possible.
Usta says specific fields, such as chemotherapy and IVF treatment, are not possible in a private setting because the state won’t license them. Invasive cardiology or cardiovascular surgery is theoretically possible, but in reality, the system mitigates against it.
This is precisely the situation Usta says Turkey was in 20 years ago. A similarly radical change in Hungary is his prescription for freeing up the market and providing much better care for all.
He says that allowing complex private medical care, especially if a co-payment system were adopted (meaning that “public” patients could use private facilities at a fraction of the cost), would enable private healthcare to flourish. That would, in turn, force the public system to raise its game. The biggest beneficiaries, he argues, would be the patients, regardless of where they received their care.
“Let’s put it this way: unless there is a system change, having double-digit EBITDA is a dream for a complex care environment like this. I think that explains everything. Double-digit EBITDA for outpatient centers is very possible, but for complex hospital care? I would like to be the first guy to do it here!”
Usta studied at Virginia Tech in the United States and worked for 20 years in Türkiye. Is there anything Hungary could teach the world?
“The work-life balance is much better here. And we Turks are very ‘bendable.’ Here, it’s very structured and has a logic of its own. If you understand and accept the logic, it makes sense. We could learn from that. In Türkiye, maybe sometimes we move too fast. Maybe we could be a little more structured, in a systematic way. And maybe Hungarians could be a little more flexible.”
MLP Care, the parent company of Liv Duna Medical Center, is an internationally recognized healthcare provider with more than 31 years of experience in delivering advanced, multidisciplinary medical services. MLP Care manages a global network that spans Azerbaijan, Dubai, Hungary, London, and Kosova, as well as Türkiye. The group says its 36 hospitals have a combined bed capacity of 6,500-plus, treating nearly 7.5 million cases annually.
This article was first published in the Budapest Business Journal print issue of June 16, 2025.
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