The Hindu Business Line : Narayana Health City to expand to other States

Health cities in all States: Dr Devi Shetty, Chairman, Narayana Hrudayalaya, and Ms Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw, Chairperson, Biocon, arriving to address a press conference in Bangalore on Wednesday. Dr Shetty is now replicating his pet venture, the 5,000-bed Narayana Health City, across the States.

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Bangalore, Feb. 6 Bangalore-based heart surgeon Dr Devi Prasad Shetty is now replicating his pet venture, the 5,000-bed Narayana Health City, across the States.

Narayana Hrudayalaya P Ltd, the holding company promoted by Dr Shetty and his family, has roped in more co-investors, the renowned surgeon said on Wednesday but without divulging total investment or equity details.

Biotechnology major Biocon’s CEO, Ms Kiran Mazumdar Shaw, comes on board in her personal capacity; AIG Investments and JP Morgan have come in as private equity investors, together pumping in Rs 400 crore.

20,000-bed hospitals

“Our goal is to add 20,000 hospital-beds in the next five years” across the country, said Dr Shetty, who is currently expanding the 26-acre, 1,000-bed venture in Bangalore into 100 acres. “We believe the need is for a 5,000-bed health city in every State capital offering specialised quality healthcare to working-class and poor people.”

The conglomerate of multi-specialty hospitals will next spread to Kolkata, Jaipur, Ahmedabad, Hyderabad where land or 26-37 acres has been ensured, and then to Delhi, Raipur, Bhopal, Jamshedpur and more cities.

Coming at a time when hospital major Wockhardt Hospitals has rolled out an IPO and ICICI Ventures’ dedicated arm Iven is investing big in brown- and greenfield hospital, Narayana Health cities promise to bring affordable quality healthcare to all.

“Our experience showed us that a complex heart surgery can be done for Rs 60,000 and still remain financially viable. It will stimulate the launching of micro-health insurance programmes for the poor,” Dr Shetty said.

Each health city will have a 1000-bed heart hospital and 3000-4000 beds for specialities like cancer, women and children; orthopaedics; neurology, eye care, among others.

The Biocon CMD, who initially came in for the 1000-bed Mazumdar Shaw Cancer Centre in the Bangalore arm, said the first cancer hospital of the health cities plan would be launched in four months. Her presence now extends to the entire health cities project.

The Bangalore arm, which is the first of the Narayana health cities, includes the 500-bed ‘Sparsh’ for orthopaedics, trauma care and plastic surgery; this hospital was recently in the news for operating on a two-year-old with eight limbs from a fused twin.

A 300-bed eye hospital Narayana Nethralaya; a Thrombosis Research Institute for early detection of coronary artery diseases are part of it. The campus will also have post-graduation institutes.

Affordable healthcare

Dr Shetty said the health cities would be alternatives to government hospitals and offer 75 per cent of beds as general-ward beds. “The biggest problem in the domestic healthcare industry is that the current players are too small. Unless a group has 20,000–30,000 beds, you cannot reduce the cost (of treatment).”

Operating in a $ 4.5-trillion global healthcare arena, a large health city would be platform for training doctors and other personnel.