Apollo Hospitals to invest Rs 2,000cr in 3 years, add 2,800 beds

Healthcare major Apollo Hospitals Enterprise will invest Rs 2,000 crore to add 2,800 beds across the country in three years as part of its expansion plans. The company that currently has over 8,500 beds in 51 hospitals across the country plans to set up a mix of reach hospitals for smaller cities and big super speciality hospitals for larger cities.

"We will be adding 2,800 beds across the country in three years. For this, we will be investing around Rs 2,000 crore," Apollo Hospitals Enterprise managing director Preetha Reddy told PTI.

When asked how the healthcare provider planned to fund the expansion she said: "It will be done from debt and internal accruals." "On an average a bed costs around Rs 70 lakh. For metros it is up wards of Rs 1 crore while for smaller locations it comes to around Rs 40 lakh to Rs 50 lakh. It varies depending on various factors such as land cost," Reddy added.

The main problem for expansion is lack of trained doctors and trained manpower, she said.

On being asked if the company is also planning overseas expansion in the near future Reddy said: "At present, our focus is the Indian market though we do lots of consulting work overseas as in countries like Indonesia, Tanzania, among others."

The Chennai-headquartered company is also aiming to add more clinics in near future.

Apart from the hospitals across India, Apollo Hospitals Enterprise at present has more than 1,350 pharmacies and over 100 diagnostic clinics.