Fortis Hospitals, a 100 per cent subsidiary of Fortis Healthcare Ltd, is set to expand its footprint across the country. The group will start 8 to 10 more hospitals in the next two years, apart from scouting for inorganic growth opportunities in eastern India.

“Eight to 10 more hospitals are in the pipeline for the next 24 months — including Gurgaon, Ludhiana, Hyderabad and Kangra in Himachal Pradesh. We are looking for acquisitions also,” said Shivinder Mohan Singh, managing director of Fortis Healthcare, in Kolkata on Sunday.

The company expects to add 2,000 more beds to its portfolio in the next two years. Fortis will set up hubs in tier I cities of the country and will expand to the rural parts keeping it as the centre, he added.

“In this part of the country, we would like to make Kolkata the hub and spread our presence to rural areas,” Singh said. It plans to expand its presence in Eastern India through acquisitions and management contracts.

“Some small healthcare providers in the region have approached us regarding this. They either want to acquire their facilities or to manage them. We are seriously thinking about some of those in tier II cities like Siliguri, Burdwan and Guwahati,” said Lloyd Nazareth, chief Operating Officer of Fortis Hospitals.While multi-specialty hospitals will serve as hubs, single specialty hospitals or clinics will be spokes.

“In terms of healthcare, the region has been subserved, hence we want to upgrade Kolkata to be a medical hub for not just eastern India but for neighbouring countries like Bangladesh and Myanmar too,” said Vishal Bali, Chief Executive Officer of Fortis Global Healthcare.

As an initial step, Fortis Hospitals commissioned the first phase of its 414-bed hospital at Anandapur on EM Bypass here on Sunday.

“During the first phase, we will have 250 beds, the second phase will start functioning within three months. The 12-storey building has been built on 1.5 acres at a cost of Rs 170 crore,” Bali said.

Forty four year old Ms Misty  Eve Vanhaitsma from Michigan  would have preferred to have her spinal disc replacement surgery from the United states if that was possible , that is she she could have done that.

Self employed and not covered by insurance,Misty decided alternately to search across the internet to shop around for some accredited Hospital that offered her an  affordable surgery which  could have given her’ quality medical ” treatement along with savings in terms of ” the treatment cost. Her research threw up opportunities in Spain and India, and Misty is now  recovering now in Fortis Hospitals,Bangalore.

Looking to return home quickly and even looking forward to her “ equestrian” later, Ms Misty is more than happy with her surgery, her choice of hospital and her dream team of medical professionals which treated .In fact she quips, no more than the reliable looks of her doctor ,may have resulted her in choosing  Indian and ” Fortis Hospitals” as  the first place.

Bottomline though her surgery  back inthe USA would have set her down by  $200,000 , was done in $20,000 in india she points out  and there in hangs a mesage for the US, says Indian healthcare representatives , specially so as  Barrack Obama comes home to India, spearheading the Campaign,  to  reform  Healthcare in the United  States, making it affordable and expanding its coverage  to uninsured  Americans.

No Backlash: Healthcare might not be an agenda when president Obama comes calling  to Indian later this week, but the US could do well to pave the way as to recognize India as an affordable destination, for quality medical Treatement,according to Fortis Hospitals CEO, Vishal Bali.

The outsourcing backlash that paves information technology, these days , need not  hold good for healthcare as when it comes sending patients to India,and results in financial savings for the US people,Mr Bali explains. India does have its own internal issues in making ” quality healthcare accessible ” but on a global platform it is still more affordable  than other countries, he says. Illustrating this he says ” Joint Replacement” costs  $11,000 in India , while the same procedure will cost almost $50,000 in the United States.

Similary “ Cardiac Surgery” will cost  about one seventh  of the US cost, between $65,000 to $100,000, he points out.Fortis Hospitals already sees some  20,000 patients every year.