The Hindu Business Line : Lifeline takes over Karur hospital

The 15 clinics taken over by Lifeline are equipped with all the necessary facilities — pharmacy, laboratory, x-ray and ECG machines and consulting rooms.

Hub-and spoke structure planned

Chennai , March 16

The Lifeline group, which runs two hospitals and a clinic in Chennai, has taken over the management of S&V Loga Hospital of Karur on a 15-year lease. It has also taken over the ownership of 15 clinics in 13 towns near Karur from the Jansons group, for an undisclosed consideration.

Lifeline intends to integrate the 120-bed S&V Loga and its 15 clinics in a hub-and-spoke structure and tele-link Loga with the Lifeline Multi Speciality Hospital in Perungudi, Chennai.

This model will be replicated in most of the districts in Tamil Nadu over the next two years, Dr J S Rajkumar, Chairman, Lifeline group, told a press conference here today. "We hope to network the entire State," he said.

The 15 clinics taken over by Lifeline are equipped with all the necessary facilities — pharmacy, laboratory, x-ray and ECG machines and consulting rooms. Cases that need greater medical attention would be referred to Karur and if further necessary, to Chennai.

The Lifeline hospital at Perungudi, Chennai is today a 225-bed hospital which started functioning from October 2005. Dr Rajkumar said that it would break even in a year's time. By December, the hospital, (built at a cost of around Rs 25 crore,) will see revenues of Rs 6 lakh a day, he said.

Lifeline plans to double the bed strength of the hospital over the next two to three years. According to Dr Selva M Annamalai, Director, Lifeline, the expansion would cost around Rs 15 crore.

Lifeline Multi Speciality, by virtue of its being located close to the IT corridor in Chennai, has won tie-ups with most of the IT companies (notably, CTS and Infosys) to locate its clinics within the companies. This results in referrals to the main hospital, Dr Rajkumar said.