After completing a decade of operations, leading hospital chain Fortis Healthcare on Thursday announced a slew of social initiatives, including opening of 25 low-cost hospitals in smaller towns and 500 free surgeries every year, among others. The company also has eight new projects in the pipeline that would add 2,000-bed capacity to the group?s existing strength in the next 18-24 months, Fortis said.
According to a company statement, the theme of the initiative is ?giving back to the community?.
The 25 new hospitals will come across the tier-II and tier-III cities under a new brand name over the next three years. While the company has not finalised the name of the new brand, a Fortis Healthcare executive said the low cost hospitals will be high-end secondary care.
The healthcare chain will also offer 10 surgeries free of cost at each of its network hospitals, which will add up to approximately 500 surgeries in a year. ?We will continue to focus on making reliable and affordable healthcare accessible to all,? Fortis Healthcare (India) MD Shivinder Mohan Singh said. It will also launch a nationwide ?mother and child? programme for the poor and economically-challenged sections of the society, under the aegis of the Fortis Foundation, the company said.
?This initiative will support the government efforts to improve infant and maternal mortality rates and specifically, increase societal awareness to alleviate the issues faced by the girl child, thereby contributing to an improvement in the overall girl child ratio,? a company statement said.