The Hindu Business Line : Harvey plans 200-bed hospital in Chennai

According to Dr M.P. Naresh Kumar, Chairman and Chief Cardiac Thoracic Surgeon, Harvey Super Specialities Hospital, $3 million (Rs 13.5 crore) will be invested in the new hospital that will come up on the East Coast Road.

"Funding (of equity and working capital) will be through strategic alliances with foreign partners," he said. At present, the hospital operates a 55-bed facility in the city. Besides regular patients, the new hospital will cater to patients under the ambit of medical tourism.

Medical tourism

To promote a holistic medical tourism experience, the hospital is in talks with ayurveda and homeopathy centres. "We are talking to the 100-year-old Venkataramana Ayurveda College and also a Singapore-based centre specialising in Chinese therapy," said Dr Kumar.

The hospital is equipped to treat 10 patients a month under a medical tourism package. To leverage its capabilities, the hospital will set up an in-house team to handle medical tourism related queries and organise trips for patients, said Dr Kumar.

Medical tourism would generate revenues of $5 billion by 2012 with 10 lakh medical tourists visiting India, he said. At present the hospital has tie-ups with travel agents to organise sightseeing and medical trips for patients.

The hospital also plans to diversify into specialties like heart, liver and kidney transplants. It currently caters to cardiology, neurology and cancer related treatment. "We are also undertaking research on tissue culture with Singapore's Nanyang Technological University and will start trials soon," said Dr Kumar.

Research tie-up

The hospital has tied up with Anna University for research on stem cell therapy.

The hospital recently performed a heart valve corrective surgery on a Nigerian patient and will operate on patients from London, Nepal and Sri Lanka this month. The surgery, including travel and sightseeing, costs about $6,000 (about Rs 2.7 lakh) and was unique, as the patient would not require any medicines post surgery, said Dr Kumar.

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