AHLL to expand network in Maharashtra, Gujarat & MP

EHM News Bureau - Mumbai

Apollo Health & Lifestyle Limited (AHLL), a wholly owned subsidiary of the Apollo Group of Hospitals today announced its plans to expand the network of its franchisee day to day healthcare centres “The Apollo Clinic” in the states of Maharashtra, Gujarat and Madhya Pradesh.

The company intends to set up 15 more franchisee clinics in Mumbai, Aurangabad, Kolhapur, Nashik, Solapur, Baroda, Bhavnagar, Bhiwandi, Indore, Jamnagar, Nagpur, Rajkot and in various other cities of Western India.

A large number of clinics are in various stages of completion such as two in Mumbai at Andheri and Kandivali, each at Thane, Pune and Nagpur. These clinics will be operational in the next couple of months.

AHLL already has three successfully operational clinics in the western region (two in Ahmedabad and one in Surat).

According to Ratan Jalan, CEO, AHLL, “As a leading healthcare service provider, we at Apollo believe that the only way to ensure a healthier population is to make quality day-to-day healthcare services accessible to everyone. We feel that there is a great demand for quality healthcare service in this part of the country.”

“We have undertaken comprehensive market surveys to assess the quality of healthcare infrastructure in these cities in the western region and have found that there is a dearth of good medical set-ups in the primary healthcare arena. The Apollo clinics aims to bridge this demand supply gap by offering quality day-to-day healthcare services under one roof, at affordable prices”, he added.

“To increase penetration and geographical reach of our clinics, we have adopted the franchise route for expansion. The idea is to supplement our knowledge and expertise in the healthcare domain with the franchisee’s understanding of the local market,” he elaborated.

He opined that the healthcare sector has a phenomenal business potential. Compared to other sectors, this is an industry that will never witness recession. Investments are limited and it offers an opportunity to earn upto 25 per cent return on the investment.

The clinics will provide complete solutions for the day-to-day healthcare needs of a family. Besides offering specialist consultation services, diagnostic facilities and specially designed preventive health check-up packages, all the clinics will have a well-stocked 24 hours pharmacy.

Value added services such as complete disease management programs, counseling and tele-medicine, facilities that will enable patients to seek a second opinion from select experts located elsewhere in India, will also be offered by these clinics.

“Anybody who has the requisite finances and shares our vision and quality focus could explore the possibility of setting up an Apollo Clinic. This way we would like to touch every town that has a population of 4 to 5 lakh, “ Jalan informed.

The healthcare industry in India is expected to cross Rs 100, 000 crores in the next three years. A recent study by KSA Technopak study on spending patterns of SEC A and B households revealed that 11 per cent of an urban household’s income is spent on healthcare, of which 68 per cent is on non-hospital expenditure.

An internal assessment also showed that the average healthcare expenditure per family per month was Rs 540 on consultation and tests alone.

In the next five years, the company plans to set up 250 Apollo Clinics, including 30 to 40 clinics abroad. As many as 35 Apollo clinics have already started operations across India and one Apollo Clinic has recently opened in Doha, Qatar.