Multi-speciality hospitality chain
Fortis Healthcare will soon foray into affordable healthcare in the tier II and III towns by creating a hospital chain under a new brand this year, a top company official said.
"We are contemplating a new brand that will focus on affordable healthcare as we focus and plan to enter tier II and III towns," Fortis Healthcare's Regional Director, Ashish Bhatia, said on the sidelines of a CII Marketing summit.
"The whole idea is to provide healthcare facilities at an affordable rate even as the healthcare services are getting dearer day by day. We will soon announce the new brand most probably in this calendar year," he added.
Fortis Healthcare, promoted by billionaire brothers Malvinder and Shivinder Mohan Singh, currently operates only in the premium segment and has hospitals in major metros and tier I cities.
The brand will be an offshoot of Fortis Healthcare and will have a different management, he added. The company is evaluating various models and options on the brand's positioning and operation.
"We are looking at different models as to how to expand in the smaller cities and towns. We are talking to various equipment manufacturers to get surgical and other medical instruments at an affordable rate.
We might either build new infrastructure or acquire some small hospitals. We will work towards providing world class service at much cheaper rates," Bhatia said.
He further said the company was also talking with several state governments for land for affordable hospitals. He, however, would not give any financial details on how much the company plans to invest in the creation and promotion of the new brand.
The BSE-listed company, which has opened its first cardiac centre at Dehradun under a PPP model with Uttarakhand Government at an investment of Rs 10 crore, also plans to scale up the operations this year. He, however, refused to divulge any further investment figures.
"We are talking to various state governments for opening of cardiac centres and will announce as and when any thing materialises," Bhatia added.
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