Wockhardt to set up 30 hospitals by 2012

Mumbai-based Wockhardt Hospitals plans to set up 30 hospitals in the country in five years.

The company plans to raise the funds needed through an IPO planned early next year.

According to management sources, the hospitals would cover almost every city of the country.

"We are in the process of preparing the blueprint for the project. It will run into several hundred crore rupees. The expansion will be a mix of greenfield projects and management partnerships," sources informed.

Wockhardt is one of the major corporate hospitals groups in the country with over 1500 beds in 10 hospitals in Mumbai, Bangalore, Calcutta, Gujarat and Nagpur. Its pan-urban presence would be complete once the current expansion plans take off.

The company is planning a new facility in central Mumbai.

Work on a 400-bed hospital in Bangalore has just begun.

A 250-bed hospital, the second in Calcutta for Wockhardt, is to be ready by 2008.

Next year will also see Wockhardt's Delhi hospital ready for operations, sources informed.

Wockhardt had announced a tie-up with Ayushman Medical Diagnostics last year to set up a 120-bed super specialty hospital in Bhopal.

Wockhardt is to construct additional facilities, upgrade existing facilities and invest in the latest technologies to provide super speciality treatment in cardiology, cardio-thoracic surgery, neurology, neurosurgery, high-end orthopedic surgery and minimal access surgery.

The new hospital will have four state-of-the-art operating theatres and a critical-care facility with a 25-bed intensive care unit.

Wockhardt's strength lies in its exclusive association with Harvard Medical International, the global arm of Harvard Medical School, the world's leading medical institution.

This association provides Wockhardt access to the latest clinical protocols, innovations and patient care practices from 17 prestigious Harvard-affiliated hospitals in the US, including the Massachusetts General Hospital, the Brigham and Women's Hospital and the Beth Israel Hospital.