Fortis Healthcare to Build 28 Hospitals Across India

Fortis Healthcare, promoted by pharmaceutical major Ranbaxy, will invest at least $500 million to build 28 hospitals across the country

Fortis Healthcare, promoted by pharmaceutical major Ranbaxy, will invest at least $500 million to build 28 hospitals across the country, taking the total number of healthcare hubs under its umbrella to 40 by 2010.

Fortis Healthcare CEO and managing director Shivinder Mohan Singh announced here Monday that the firm will venture into all parts of the country with this investment.

"So far our concentration has been in north India and now we will enter south and west India as well.

"Currently we have 2,000 beds and by 2010 we will have 7,000 beds. Similarly, we have 12 hospitals and are present in seven states, and by 2010 Fortis will be dotting its presence in 14 states," he told a press conference.

Of the total investment Fortis will spend nearly $244 millions from internal resources and the rest would be raised through an IPO and borrowings from banks, Singh said.

Talking about their upcoming flagship hospital in Gurgaon, Fortis authorities said plans had been finalised to set up Fortis Medicity, a seven-star multi-super-speciality flagship hospital. The groundbreaking ceremony for this healthcare hub will be held Wednesday.

The 950-bed hospital will be constructed with an investment of Rs.8 billion. The health hub, to be named Fortis International Institute of Medical Sciences (FIIMS), will be on a 10.7-acre area and will have 32 operation theatres.

The 10-storey health city will focus on specialities of oncology, trauma, paediatrics, cosmetology, neurosciences, cardiac sciences, genito-urinary diseases and minimal access surgery. Besides, all kinds of tertiary care will also be provided in these centres.

"This will be like a mother of all our hospitals. We were planning for this for the last two to three years," said Singh. Daljit Singh, president (strategy and organisational development) of Fortis, said unlike other private hospitals, the new facility will not have any reservation for subsidised treatment to poor patients.

"The major focus of this Gurgaon institution will be for medical tourism. We would like to treat most of our internationals patients here. Its proximity to the airport is also an advantage," Daljit Singh said.

Company officials said a level-III neonatal clinic will support the mother and child programme and the oncology centre for treating cancer will be located in a separate block.

Asked if Fortis was trying to counter renowned cardiologist Naresh Trehan's Medicity Project in the same city, Shivinder Mohan Singh said: "We are not countering any other project."

Trehan, who was the director of Fortis-backed Escorts Heart Institute and Research Centre, had quit earlier this year due to "conflict of interest" with the management.

Trehan was first sacked from his post and then reinstated but finally he resigned from Escorts to devote more time to the Medicity project in Gurgaon.

Fortis' health city will not be far from that of Trehan's hospital. "It would be around two-three km away," Shivinder Mohan Singh said.

Source-IANS
LIN/J