Apollo’s heart set on health tourism; says 2008/09 will bring good times to shareholders

Apollo Hospitals, this week, announced the launch of a Heart Centre – a centre of excellence for cardiology - to expand its heart related speciality to a growing health tourism market including patients in the UK.

The hospital is hoping to sell its trademark ‘matters-of-the-heart’ services to British heart patients in the National Health Services’ (NHS) waiting list. The improved heart services will also be available to local patients, especially children, at very affordable rates, said the management.

“We do not have a formal link with the NHS at this point. We are working through a referral network to inform patients about the facilities available at Apollo because cardiac surgery is very expensive in the UK and there is also a waiting list in the NHS,” said Jane Gagen, Head of International Marketing, of Lanka Hospitals Corporation Ltd. Lanka Hospitals took over ownership of Apollo from the original Indian management in October 2006. “We have a package for adult patients from the UK to come here for surgery and to remain here until they have recovered from the surgery. The overall cost is much lower than doing heart surgery in the UK,” said CEO, Lanka Hospitals, Lakith Peiris.

Apollo is yet to start heart treatment for British patients but says it’s already treating around 1,000 foreign patients per year and expects the numbers to increase with its specialised Heart Centre services.

Up to now the hospital’s focus in medical tourism has been mainly in providing cosmetic surgery.

Working with the group’s travel and tourism arm, Aitken Spence, Apollo offers ‘packages’ for cosmetic surgery and recovery, in Sri Lanka. The packages are attracting clients mainly from the Maldives and also the UK, New Zealand, Germany and Australia.
Apollo also plans to launch a Rs 40 million Fertility Centre by June this year.

Apollo Sri Lanka is yet to show a net profit. However, shareholders are expected to start seeing good times from the coming financial year.

“We already have an operating profit. We have not been able to show a net profit mainly due to the large inherited debt. But by now we have paid up almost 90% of the debt and from next year the bottom line should improve,” said Ajit Jayaratne, Chairman of Lanka Hospitals.

“We have changed our business model. We expect to grow our client base and we have reduced the debt burden. So we expect the 2008/09 financial year to be a very good one for Apollo share holders,” said CEO, Lakith Peiris. In expanding its client base, Apollo is also targeting local patients. The hospital says its Heart Centre services and all other facilities are priced at extremely affordable rates to offer high quality services to locals.