“The paperwork to set up a medical office costs up to $3,000 and the delay is one year in Guayaquil,” says a specialist in coloproctology

In the top ten businesses with permits that are most common in Guayaquil, he The only ones that need to be managed by people with higher education are general medicine and specialty offices.which add up to 1,418 in the city.

These are the third most numerous, after stores or pantries and restaurants and above pharmacies, bazaars, boutiques (include clothing accessories), vehicle spare parts and accessories, hairdressers-beauty cabinets, hardware stores-paint stores and soda fountains (see complete list in box).

Daniel González has a general medicine and coloproctology practice (part of medicine that studies all diseases that affect the colon). He says that one of these premises requires, in addition to the usual permits —such as authorization from the Fire Department, land use, cadastral registry and up-to-date property taxes if it is its own premises—, those required by the Ministry of Health.

Vaccines and reduced sales cause the closure of businesses in cities like Guayaquil, stores and restaurants are the most numerous businesses

There are specific measures, such as the person who cleans the premises has the hepatitis B vaccine, more signage and the prices of consultations and treatments, says González. The main thing is that whoever obtains the permit, then, is a doctor with a degree according to the specialty that is intended to be installed if that is the case.

González offers consultations as a coloproctologist surgeon (a specialist trained to diagnose and treat diseases of the colon) along with his wife, Eimy Sánchez, who is a pediatrician.

Both attend in the private consultation tower of the Interhospital complex, located in Ceibos, in the west of Guayaquil. In his case, he owns the premises. “But each owner must process the permits independently from those of the hospital complex. What is done is consultation, physical examination, weight and height assessment. We do not do any other type of procedures.”

The place has been open for seven months, after they arrived from the specialization they did in Argentina. The investment only in the permit process reached three thousand dollars, add. And the time to get them complete it was a yearsays Gonzalez. “There is a gap to attend to patients, but we cannot stay without doing it until we complete all the permits.”

All these expenses ultimately influence the cost of medical consultations, treatments and procedures offered by the private sector.

Guillermo Granja, a professor at the Ecotec University School of Economics and Business Sciences, in Guayaquil, affirms that the service and commercial areas are the most developed in the city. “Of these are professionals such as doctors, dentists, lawyers or accountants, who may have their own premises or work for others, either in a medical center or law firm, as the case may be.”

The third place occupied by medical or specialty offices goes hand in hand, adds Granja, with the expansion of these businesses due to high demand during the COVID-19 pandemic. “They are professional services that are always in demand., even when we were locked up, after and before. When we need a tax return, it goes to the accountant; if legal advice is required, go to the lawyer; or if you have a dental problem, you look for the dentist”.

All of them are part of what in macroeconomics is called the category of professional services activities. “There are studies that indicate that professional, technical and administrative activities grew substantially during the pandemic, and Guayaquil has a commercial dynamic that is more than 200 years old. Being a port there are always opportunities to sell any type of product”.

The main port of the country has an Economically Active Population (PEA, which includes people over 15 who have a job or are looking for it) of 1’283,199 in the fourth quarter of 2022, above the national capital Quito whose PEA it was 1,017,408 in the same period, according to official figures from the National Institute of Statistics and Censuses (INEC).

Hence, the shops, hairdressers and restaurants, which are more numerous in Guayaquil, go hand in hand with the commercial activity of the city, says Granja. “If trade didn’t become so strong here in the city we would be seeing an implosion in unemployment, there would be a lot of people who couldn’t make ends meet.”

In this multiplicity of businesses, even those of the same type on the same block or area, in a competitive market, what prevails is innovation and the differentiation of each one of them, the specialist notes.

Here an example. “Rosca de reyes is the same, what makes the difference whether you buy in one place or another is the price, the ingredients and the way they prepare it, so in the end there is a satisfied demand for each of the customers according to their tastes ”. (YO)