Monetising your sneeze

Font Size

Print

Feedback

Email

Discuss

Related Articles

Fortis, Apollo eye medical tourism mkt in Mauritiu...Govt plans edu model for rural healthcareMax India approves JV with UK-based firm

: Regardless of which Indian city you live in, here’re two quick questions for you: have new hospitals come up in your city in the past few years? Your likely answer: Yes. Are any of these new healthcare facilities operating in the primary healthcare space? Your likely answer: No.

Welcome to the world of Indian private healthcare (and dipstick surveys!). Ever since the mid-1990s when healthcare businesses grew out from their single-city—and, often, single hospital—model and hit the national scene establishing a multi-location presence, the model followed by corporate healthcare chains has been closely watched. Unlike in developed markets—or, even, in developing regions of Asia—where companies have a presence in all three segments (primary, secondary and tertiary) of the healthcare chain, Indian hospital chains have been largely focussing on the upper-end of the business.

The internationally proven hospital hub-and-spoke model—a super-specialty or multi-specialty hub surrounded by advanced secondary care spokes that are further aided by primary health care centres—was touted as the model of choice for these early-birds in Indian healthcare. (See ‘Primary learnings’ alongside.)

Cut to 2006 and you are witness to different hospital companies evolving widely variant growth models. With the exception of Hyderabad-headed Apollo Hospitals —which has a growing two-year-old presence in primary healthcare through its chain of Apollo Clinics—there is no other pan- Indian private healthcare chain that deals with primary or day-to-day health care.

New Delhi’s Max Healthcare did initiate its Dr Max-branded clinic in the national capital region but has not been able to grow beyond just one while the number of Max tertiary and secondary care hospitals has grown over time. Similarly, Fortis—part of the Ranbaxy group—and Mumbai’s Wockhardt both do not see the establishment of primary health clinics. “We have no plans of setting up day to day health-care clinics,” says Fortis CEO Daljit Singh.

Look at the missed opportunity: according to consultant McKinsey & Co, the Indian healthcare sector—including pharmaceuticals, diagnostics and hospital services—is expected to more than double in revenues to Rs 200,000 crore by 2012 from around Rs 90,000 crore in 2004. Expenditure on healthcare services—including diagnostics, hospital stays and outpatient consulting —is the largest component of this spend and is expected to grow more than 125% to Rs 156,000 crore by 2012 from Rs 69,000 crore. Outpatients account for 61%— or Rs 95,000 crore six years from now — of this.