New Delhi [India]March 14 (ANI): Sweden-headquartered multinational hospital chain Medicover Hospitals, which currently has 24 hospitals in India, plans to double its footprint over a period of next five years.
Medicover is a specialist provider of diagnostic and healthcare services. The company operates through two divisions – Diagnostic Services and Healthcare Services. In its healthcare network, it has a total of 32 hospitals and 129 healthcare centres. The group’s largest markets are India, Poland and Romania.
“In the next five years, our ambition is to more than double our footprint in India. We will also, as a consequence, provide much more affordable care to the Indian people. Of course, our revenues will grow along the way,” Fredrik Stenmo , chairman of the group said in an exclusive interaction with ANI.
Fredrik Stenmo has been chairman of the board since 2017.
“India is an important market for the group and especially it is the third largest Swedish company with 13,000 employees in India,” the chairman of Medicover Hospitals told ANI.
“We believe that the healthcare market in India will triple in size over the next 10 years from USD 150 billion to over USD 450 billion,” the chairman said.
Asked about the outlook for the healthcare market in India, given the government’s heavy focus on building healthcare, Stenmo said, “It (the growth from USD 150 billion to USD 450 billion) will go through multiple sectors. This is a function of GDP growth, plus the higher penetration of healthcare spending as a share of the wallet. So that means higher penetration of GDP. This will drive significant growth over the next 10 years.” Currently, the group has a total of 24 hospitals spread across 15 different cities in India.
“We are present in 15 different cities. We are out of four in Tier I or metros. They are Mumbai, Pune, Hyderabad and Vizag (Visakhapatnam). We are present in three states – Maharastra, Telangana and Andhra Pradesh. We provide tertiary care — so mainly cardiology, orthopedics, gynecology and oncology.” According to Stenmo, the group is now expanding into specialties. “Oncology is the first area where we have done that. We have four centers today. We have gone from being in three states and now also entering Karnataka in this year,” he said.
The Medicover group provides a wide range of healthcare services and has a network of hospitals, cancer institutes, specialist care facilities, fertility centers and diagnostic laboratories.
Further, when asked what are the lessons learned in India so far and how difficult or easy it was when he interacted with the Indian government, the chairman said: “In the healthcare sector, there is a lot of attention and focus from the politicians and the local authorities. ” “We deal predominantly with the state governments. And because it’s such a necessary service, we have no problem dealing with the governments, whether it’s at the state level or local development. They’re very accommodating to growth in this sector. ” He was also asked how Medicover differed from various other companies investing in India.
Without going into details, Stenmo said, “If you are going to be able to offer healthcare to the Indian people at an affordable price. You need a local cost structure. You have to bring good technology from around the world, but you also have to adapt it to the local level. But the most important thing will be to take a long-term view of your ownership.” “Now we are a family-owned company. Even though we are listed, the family is still a majority shareholder. Our view is generational,” said Stenmo. (ANI)
Source: sn.dk