Space Hospitals lines up Rs 25 cr for expansion

Chennai-based telemedicine service provider, Space Hospitals Ltd, is expanding its services by setting up 500 satellite medical centres, 800 telemedicine centres, and 40 more hospitals in the next one year across India.

By the end March 2007, the company plans to establish 126 telemedicine centres, 38 satellite medical centres and 10 regional associate hospitals.

In the first phase, spread over the next six months, Space Hospitals will invest around Rs 25 crore. "Our target is to establish around 10,000 centres in the next five years," said A Sivakumaran, CFO, Space Hospitals.

The company will also launch 10 mobile telemedicine units in the next one year, with two units in each of the four states -- Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra, Kerala and two more in New Delhi. Around Rs 10 lakh will be invested in these mobile units.

"We are also going to extend our services to the Asian countries, Middle East and Africa. We are still in the preliminary stage of discussions and will be able to formulate concrete plans after considering a few issues like connectivity tariffs. However, we intend to hit the international market in another six months," said Sivakumaran.

The cost of setting up a satellite centre is around Rs 2.5 lakh, whereas the rates vary for providing high-end equipment to major hospitals, he said.

"We believe that the service will bring about a cost reduction of 20 percent when compared with conventional healthcare costs, but this might vary from case to case. The estimated turnover by the end of 2006 will be around Rs 7 crore and we are expecting it to increase to around Rs 38 crore by 2007-2008."

Space Hospitals is in talks with institutions like BRS Hospital, SKS Hospital, Meenakshi Mission Hospital, Kovai Medical Centre and Medindia for further associate hospital tie-ups.

For the setting up of satellite medical centres, it is considering tie-ups with M V K Nursing Home in Tanjore, Sangeetha Hospital in Coimbatore and Saravana Hospital in Madurai.

Space Hospitals expects around 15 percent of doctor-patient consultation in India to switch over to telemedicine services in the next five years.