Manipal Hospital to strengthen medical, educational institutes for expansion

New Delhi: Manipal Health Enterprises, which runs the Manipal Hospital chain, plans to leverage the strength of medical and other educational institutes run by its parent as it seeks to triple bed strength to 7,000 over next four-five years, CEO Ajay Bakshi told ET.

The Bangalore-based healthcare provider will invest Rs 2,500 crore over the next four-five years on its expansion.

Manipal Health currently owns 2,000 hospital beds and manages over 3,000 more.

Terming the scarcity of doctors as the biggest challenge of hospital business in India, Bakshi said the Manipal group's alumni network of 27,000 doctors within the country will help it access a steady talent pool during its aggressive growth phase.

"The dearth of doctors in the country has taken inter-group poaching in private healthcare to a different level altogether," he said. "In that backdrop, Manipal's educational roots is almost like the backbone to its healthcare business, especially at a time when we are planning to grow at such a fast pace."

According to Bakshi, Manipal group's alumni network in the US stands at roughly 3,000, while a fifth of all doctors working in Malaysia have been trained at Manipal, thanks to a decades-old arrangement between the government there and Manipal group.

The group produces about 1,700 medical graduates every year in a country that produces less than 50,000 doctors a year.

Sourcing doctors is not the only way the hospital chain is using its parent's presence in the education business. While picking geographies to grow, the group is zeroing in on cities and countries where it already runs medical and non-medical education institutes.

"We have experienced that a strong brand presence, even in the form of non-medical institute benefits a new hospital in the region," Bakshi said.

The group's foray into Jaipur early this year was partly driven by this factor, as Manipal University already offered engineering and MBA courses in the city. For similar reasons, the group is actively looking at building presence in Dubai and other cities, where its university offers a variety of non-medical courses.

The group is also planning to set up hospitals in big metros such as Delhi and Mumbai while increasing footprint in its stronghold of southern India. "In South, we need to fill in some gaps, for instance in Tamil Nadu we have only one hospital with none in Chennai. We are considering Hyderabad, a city we are yet to enter," Bakshi said. It also plans to build its presence in select emerging cities, for instance those which have manufacturing hubs or a strong BPO presence. Overseas, Manipal is exploring growth opportunities in Middle- East, Africa and Malaysia, Bakshi added.

"In some metros such as Gurgaon, there is an oversupply of tertiary beds, a new entrant will need to bring in a unique proposition, either to do with cost, doctor engagement model or something to attract patients," said Charu Sehgal, senior director, life sciences and healthcare consulting, at Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu. Also, reputed players with an established brand and a presence in medical education and health care delivery are in a unique position to be pioneers in the innovative healthcare solutions space, which includes new models of delivery to reach the unreached as well as reduce the human resource gap, she added.

Disclaimer: This information has been collected through secondary research and IBEF is not responsible for any errors in the same.