Apollo Hospitals Enterprise Ltd is planning to maintain 18-20% growth rate in 2008-09, said Preetha Reddy, managing director of the group.
?Healthcare industry in India has not been much impacted by the financial crisis. But we need to become more responsible in cutting costs down,? said Reddy.
Net profit of the hospital has increased to Rs 30 crore during the quarter to September 30, 2008, as against Rs 23 crore recorded in the corresponding period last fiscal.
?In terms of beds not getting full, I do not see any trend. We might see that somebody looking at very high-rate room might go for rooms less expensive,? Reddy said. ?Meanwhile, dollar appreciation has also affected the group as equipment have become more expensive,? she added.
The group will add 500 more beds this fiscal to 9,000 beds at present in 44 hospitals under the group. ?The cost for a bed ranges from Rs 35 lakh to 75 lakh, depending on the real estate price,? she said.
?By 2010, we plan to add 1050 more beds and push it to 15,000 in next three to five years,? she said. The group has been able to tide over the liquidity crunch and stick to its expansion plan.
?There was some amount of equity raised last year, which was not been fully deployed. That is there to complete whatever projects we have in hand. Moreover the banks are not averse to giving loans to the healthcare sector,? Reddy said.
With the dollar appreciating, Apollo Group is also looking at the increase in the number of foreign patients. They cover almost 10% of the total number of patients treated by Apollo.
?We see a trend that so-called Caucasian patients have started to come. At any given time in Delhi and Chennai, we have 10-20 patients from US, UK and Canada,? Reddy said.