NephroPlus forays into Maharashtra

Company has tied up with Pune's Jehangir Hospital, plans to set up three more centres in next one year

Hyderabad based dialysis provider network NephroPlus has forayed in Maharashtra by setting up its first centre in Pune and 18th in the country. The company has tied up with Pune's Jehangir Hospital and plans to set up three more such centres in the next one year.

Commenting on this, Vikram Vuppala, Founder and CEO, NephroPlus, said, "Our larger goal is to redefine dialysis care in India and beyond. We are expanding our network at a fast pace and are confident that in the coming three years, we will be able to expand to 100 centers across the country. We are proud to partner with a reputed institution like Jehangir Hospital to provide the much-needed relief to scores of dialysis patients in and around Pune."

According to Vuppala, NephroPlus market research shows that around 80,000 – 100,000 patients need dialysis service in Maharashtra, but majority of these patients either do not have access or cannot afford the treatment. Currently there are 200 – 250 centers in entire Maharashtra serving 25,000 patients, but 125 to 150 of them located in Mumbai itself. Only 100- 125 centers exist outside of Mumbai serving around 8,000 to 10,000 patients in Maharashtra.

He added, "We are offering state of the art dialysis with world class infrastructure at this NephroPlus unit in Pune for a nominal price of Rs 1,300 per session, which is lowest in its class across NephroPlus."

Normally, the company invests Rs 80 lakh to 1.30 crore to set up a unit in a hospital depending upon the number of beds placed for the unit. Assisted by a dedicated team of doctors and trained nurses, the new unit will start with 11 beds and can be scaled up to 20 beds .

The centre, apart from providing regular dialysis, will offer innovative dialysis modalities like nocturnal dialysis (dialysis done at night), short daily dialysis (2 hours every day as opposed to 4 hours thrice a week) and home dialysis.