Welcome to health city

It is being billed as Asia's first health city, spread over 33 acres. In what was the campus in Hyderabad for Apollo Hospital earlier, Apollo has now put in place an integrated healthcare delivery system with infrastructure to handle both prevention and wellness.

With a total investment of Rs 1,000 crore (which includes the hospital it set up there way back in 1987), Apollo has now added elements beyond therapeutic needs such as education, BPO, research, it and telemedicine. A cancer institute, heart institute, eye institute, college of physiotherapy, institute of hospital administration, institute of neurosciences, institute of pg education for doctors, a nursing school and a college have been set up. Apollo will also offer clinical research. The facility encompasses a 300-bed multi-specialty hospital with over 50 specialties and super-specialties and in all 10 centres of excellence.

Some of this will need more investments (for instance, on those relating to alternative forms of medicine) and Apollo intends to invest close to Rs 150 crore in the next two years on these. The idea is to leverage the strengths of various components and offer an integrated health delivery set-up.

"We have been working on this for the last 12 to 18 months," says Dr Prathap C. Reddy, Chairman, Apollo Hospitals Group. "I am also a doctor and not just a businessman and I have seen where we have failed, which is in providing a holistic solution to the patients. The health city brings together all the components of healthcare."