Narayana Hrudayalaya to foray into Malaysia

Bangalore-headquartered Narayana Hrudayalaya is expanding its footprints abroad. The healthcare provider, currently building a hospital in the Cayman Islands, has now entered into an agreement with the Malaysian branch of the Columbia Asia Hospital to run its cardiology and cardiac care facility.

Columbia Asia is a private healthcare company incorporated in Malaysia in 1996. Its first medical facility, the Columbia Asia Extended Care Hospital — Shah Alam, was launched in Malaysia in 1998. Now, it has 23 healthcare facilities (hospitals, clinics and extended care facilities) across four countries — Malaysia, India, Vietnam and Indonesia.

While details about the Malaysian foray are sketchy, Narayana Hrudayalaya founder Devi Prasad Shetty told Business Standard: “We signed up with them in the recent past. The civil work is going on right now on the project. We will run the cardiology and cardiac premises for Columbia Asia.”

The facility is expected to be up and running in another three-four months. “It’s always better to enter a foreign country in partnership with locally-established people as it is safer,” said Shetty.

“Malaysia is a good destination as it is attracting doctors, and at the same time providing tax incentives to hospital chains,” said an analyst tracking the healthcare sector.

Meanwhile, Narayana Hrudayalaya is in the process of building low-cost heart hospitals across India using prefabricated construction material. “We intend to have such hospitals in place with collective capacity of 30,000 beds in the next five-seven years. This is to reduce the cost and make surgery affordable,” said Dr Shetty. He explained that these hospitals will have 300 beds each, which can be built within six months at a cost of Rs 30 crore per hospital.

The Cayman Islands project is set to be commissioned within 10 months. The hospital will start with 200 beds. According to Shetty, the group now has “control over 200 acres” there. He said it can go up to 500 acres as and when the group needs land for its expansion. Also, Narayana Hrudayala, which is well known as a cardiac care hospital, is now trying to project its credentials as a multi-speciality hospital chain. It wants to be known as a holistic healthcare provider.