The US-based private investment firm GTI Group and Mahesh Reddy-promoted Nova Medical Centre plan to set up around 100 day-care surgery centres in the next three to four years with an investment of over Rs 800 crore.
The company executives’ claim that the patients could save about 15-20% in surgery costs at Nova’s day care centres compared to the corporate hospitals rates. “The low-cost model and the high efficiency rates of 450 surgeries per month per centre would make it a befitting model for India, which has a bed to population ratio of 0.7 per thousand persons compared to the world average of 3.3. Overnight room costs and related overhead costs are eliminated and the model enables surgeons to attend to more patients in less time. We would essentially focus on minimally invasive surgeries, which use the technological advances to its best. Research shows that 70% of all the surgeries can be performed in outpatient centres,” Suresh Soni, chairman & co-founder, Nova told FE. Currently, the day care surgery model has a market potential of Rs 42,000 crore in the country. In the first phase, the group plans to build 25 centres in 10 major cities in the next two years.
“In 24 months from now, we would have around 125 operation theatres. For investors interested in the healthcare vertical, it would be a more profitable option than hospitals. It takes around three to four months for a day care facility to get up and running and the facility breaks-even in seven to eight months of getting operational,” said Girish Rao, CEO, Nova. An average corporate hospital on the other hand takes a minimum of one year in the making and a minimum of two to three years to break even. Company executives point out that even in a hospital set up, around 75% of revenue is finally made from the surgeries, while the balance is earned from room charges, service charges among other components. The group also envisions an initial public offer in three to four years from now. Apart from the six large metros, the first 25 centres could come up in cities such as Jaipur, Amritsar, Ahmedabad, Pune.