Care Hospitals to add 800 beds across India by 2021

Care Hospitals, part of Dubai-headquartered Evercare Group, is looking to add 800 beds in its portfolio across India by 2021, a top company official said.

The healthcare provider currently has 12 hospitals in India with 2,200 beds, providing multi-specialty tertiary care.

"Our objective is to reach a total of 3,000 beds across our hospitals in India in next two years. For this we would like to add 800 more beds in our portfolio by end of 2021 across the country," Care Hospitals Group CEO and Evercare Group MD Raajiv Singhal told PTI.

Out of these, 250 beds will be in the group's fourth hospital in Visakhapatnam that is coming up, he added.

"We are also looking to acquire some hospitals in ceratin other parts of the country, the beds will come either through acquisition or from the expansion of the existing facilities," Singhal said.

The reason for opening the hospitals in cities such as Visakhapatnam, Bhubaneswar, Raipur, Nagpur, Pune and Hyderabad has been to provide access to medical care at affordable rates to the people, he noted.

On its plans to raise funds for this, Singhal said: "We have the capital available for the expansion".

The cost incurred by the group for adding a bed is usually around Rs 65 lakh, he said.

The group currently operates mainly in tier II and tier III cities in India.

On the future road map, Singhal said the group is also open to looking at an opportunity to acquire a hospital in Delhi, which will add value to Care Hospitals as the national capital is a centre for medical tourism, a segment that is missing from its portfolio.