Apollo Hospitals to franchise only primary clinics

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Apollo Hospitals on Friday said that it has discontinued its franchise model for hospitals, and will restrict the model for primary health clinics only. “We are not building franchise hospitals anymore, since we have the capabilities to manage our own projects,” said Sangita Reddy, executive director – operations, Apollo Hospitals, at the India Health Conclave organised by Technopak here.

“We are growing our clinics fairly extensively. We will do the franchise model for primary clinics,” Reddy said. Apollo Hospitals is targeting to set up 500 clinics from the present 70.

Apollo Health and Lifestyle (AHL), a subsidiary of Apollo Hospitals that also runs Apollo Clinic chain has been reported to be planning to set up a chain of 25-30 birth facility centres. AHL also runs the Apollo clinics chain. Some of the birth centres being planned are said to be on franchise basis.

Reddy also said that the healthcare major will focus on five of its large hospitals and develop them into centres of excellence. “Our aim is to become asset light, and maintain a share-your-knowledge strategy,” she added. Apollo Hospitals today boasts of more than 8,000 beds and is planning to beef up its pharmacies to 1,000. There are 70 Apollo pharmacies in the country today and is the largest pharmacy chain in India. Additionally, the retail business is moving towards offering e-prescription based services to the end user and the doctor.

With nursing and hospital management colleges, pharmacies, diagnostic clinics, medical transcription services, third-party administration and telemedicine, Apollo caters to all aspects of the healthcare spectrum.