Narayana Hrudalaya Hospitals eye East African nations

KOLKATA: Narayana Hrudalaya Hospitals group is eyeing East African countries for overseas expansion, a company official said today.

"We are now looking at the East African nations of Kenya, Tanzania and Zambia for setting up hospitals," Managing Director, Vice-Chairman and Group CEO Ashutosh Raghuvanshi said.

Announcing a tie-up with city-based Westbank Hospital here, he said the group is coming up with facilities in Cayman Islands and Kuala Lumpur.

While the hospital in Cayman Islands would cost $60 million, the one at Kuala Lumpur would entail an investment of $100 million, he added.

Raghuvanshi said Indonesia is also among the target countries where the group would like to step in with a hospital facility.

Stressing on affordable healthcare, he said the group is trying to reduce treatment costs through a series of innovative measures, one of which is to bring down the construction costs of hospitals drastically by using new technology.

"The present cost of putting up a hospital bed is Rs 35 lakh. We want to lower it to Rs 18 lakh to Rs 20 lakh per bed," he said.

This, would further bring down the in-patient bills of the group hospitals, he said.

At present, having 17 hospitals nation-wide, the group would add another eight projects which would involve an estimated investment of Rs 200 crore, Raghuvanshi said.

"We need capital for long-term needs and tapping the private equity route is not feasible since the money through this avenue is for short-term," he said, adding "We are looking for capital from wealthy individuals who will like to commit themselves to the cause."