Coimbatore-based Sri Ramakrishna Hospital is building a super speciality hospital in the same hospital premises at an estimated cost of Rs 130 crore.

The new hospital is expected to open by early 2016.

In an interview to Business Line here on Tuesday, R Vijayakumhar, Joint Managing Trustee, S N R Sons Charitable Trust, which runs the hospital apart from a string of educational institutions, said the city already has hospitals offering quality healthcare that was next or even equal to what Chennai hospitals provided.

Among the leading institutions in the city were three or four corporate hospitals. That SRH was going for a super speciality high-tech hospital did not mean that its existing hospital did not offer specialised care.

But what differentiated it from other hospitals of similar nature was the profile of the patients coming for treatment as it was a charitable institution, and hence offered treatment at lower cost compared to others. It also provided "large discounts" in cost to people from lower income groups which it considered as a corporate social responsibility, he said.

He said there was a noticeable trend of the middle and upper middleclass seeking "better facilities, comforts and exclusivity" which are being offered in a few other places. The absence of this had led to some of SRH’s patients moving to other hospitals that provided the exclusivity and SRH now seeks to fill this gap.

Services at new facility

Vijayakumhar said the proposed super speciality hospital would offer specialities such as liver transplant and a few other organ transplants. He was also hopeful of offering spine surgery which was available elsewhere in the city.

Offering a wide gamut of services, it would be "like a 5 star hotel-hospital" with central air conditioning and "suitable interiors". He felt that this would enable it to attract overseas patients since medical tourism was expected to grow "in double digits in the next few years", in addition to affluent patients from within India who seek very specialised treatment.

Asked about the cost structure in the new hospital, he said "the cost will be totally different" from the existing hospital and said he could not quantify the cost at the moment. But the new super speciality hospital "would still be cheaper than the major metros’.

Explaining the staffing of the new hospital, he said apart from senior specialists from the Sri Ramakrishna hospital who would attend to patients there, the hospital has started building a team for organ transplants and begun recruiting doctors for other specialities. The hospital was also in touch with doctors from the UK who are willing to relocate to Coimbatore and he was confident of attracting "good talent".

Charitable services

The SNR Sons Trust would continue with its charitable services. While the existing hospital would cater to the needs of low and middle income patients at affordable cost, the new super speciality hospital would meet the requirements of affluent patients from within India and overseas patients.

Vijayakumhar said an agreement has been entered into with GE of the US to have "the world’s latest radiographic equipment" in Coimbatore. He said, in fact, according to the supplier, some of the machines being imported would be the first to be installed in South East Asia. He said the city has many advantages for medical tourism like centres for recuperation as many hill stations like Ooty, Kotagiri, Munnar etc were close by. What the city needed was better air connectivity and improved power supply.

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