Apollo plans to assist Lesotho in healthcare sector

India's leading healthcare chain Apollo Hospitals is looking to engage with the southern African country of Lesotho to assist it in capacity building in the healthcare sector.
"We are going to Lesotho for engagements with the Ministry of Health there," said Dr Harinder Singh Sidhu, senior General Manager, Corporate Development, at Apollo Hospitals Group.
The healthcare systems in Lesotho "need a lot of support in terms of tertiary care and we have been liaising with the High Commissioner in Lesotho who requested us to visit and invited us to meet the Health Minister this week," Sidhu said.
"We want to see how we can help them in capacity building and treatments," Sidhu told PTI here while transiting to the tiny mountain kingdom completely enclosed within South Africa.

Commenting on plans for expansion into South Africa, Sidhu said: "Nothing major as of now, but we are trying to engage them as well."
"South Africa has very good healthcare but of late there are problems as well with the high costs of healthcare, so probably with the experience of India providing high care quality at very affordable cost, there could be opportunities," Sidhu said.

Sidhu said the possibility of doing an India Healthcare show in South Africa was being considered in consultation with the Indian Consulate-General in Johannesburg.
"With the low cost of healthcare in India, people from all over the world are coming there for healthcare and we are keen to showcase this in South Africa as well."

Sidhu said Apollo was very active in both private and public sector in several countries in the north, east and west of Africa, including Tanzanian, Nigeria, Ghana, Ethiopia, Kenya and Madagascar.
"We are now seeing if there could be something workable in southern Africa as well.