Wockhardt Hospitals to open fifth facility in Bangalore

Bangalore: Wockhardt Hospitals, which has four facilities across Bangalore, has signed up with a hospital of the Kirloskar group in Peenya to the north of Bangalore for its fifth facility in the city. With this, the group is entering the oncology services. Wockhardt will invest in the infrastructure of the facility. Kirloskar is setting up a health city there.

With Bangalore emerging as an oncology destination, Wockhardt doesn’t want to miss out on the opportunity. With neurology and neuro-surgery emerging as a major focus area for the group, oncology will complete the spectrum of services.

The hospital, in the first phase of its project at the Ravi Kirloskar Hospital, will set up a facility with 120 beds. After complete expansion it will have 250 beds. With this, the group hopes to cover the entire city.

“The group’s new model, which originated in Bangalore, aims at concentrating on the intensive care services,” said Vishal Bali, CEO, Wockhardt Hospitals.

Wockhardt is widening its intensive and critical care unit hospitals network in Bangalore and now has the largest network of ICU beds in the city. The cost of setting up a bed in a super-speciality facility is around Rs 55 lakh per bed.

Wockhardt sees tier II cities as the next drivers of growth. With 35 per cent of its patients coming from outside the cities where it has its hospitals, the group, by expanding its services to tier II cities, hopes to serve these patients. There is now also migration of services and specialists from bigger to smaller cities.

The group has filed its Red-Herring Prospectus for its IPO which is set to hit the market in a few weeks. The group will also announce its pre-IPO placement in the two days.