Medica Group of Hospitals is looking at making fresh acquisitions in Calcutta and other cities of Bengal, the healthcare group’s new chairman, Nandakumar Jairam, said on Saturday.
Medica on Friday announced the appointment of Jairam as the new chairman after the private hospital chain’s founder and former chairman Alok Roy “pulled out”.
“We are open to looking at new additions to the existing capacity of the hospital. It will be decided by Sheares,” Jairam told The Telegraph on Saturday.
Sheares Healthcare Group owns and provides healthcare delivery services in Asia and around the world. It is wholly owned by Temasek, a global investment company headquartered in Singapore.
Sheares at the moment holds in “excess of 86 per cent of Medica’s shares,” said Jairam.
Roy said he sold his stakes to Sheares.
“I sold my stakes in Medica to Sheares and pulled out of the group. Now I am helping healthcare professionals to deliver better as a senior mentor,” Roy told The Telegraph on Saturday.
Last year, Sheares replaced the earlier investors in Medica, a consortium led by Asian private equity investor Quadria and Europe-based co-investors DEG and Swedfund.
Sources said Quadria had a 67 per cent stake in Medica.
The deal was scheduled earlier but was stalled because of the Covid pandemic, Roy had said then.
Sheares recently bought the majority stake in Bangalore-based Manipal Health Enterprises.
“While acquiring a running hospital, we’ll be evaluating several factors like infrastructure and quality of doctors before taking the decision,” said Jairam, who has formerly been chairman, CEO and group medical director at Columbia Asia Hospitals in India, chairman of the NABH under the auspices of Quality Council of India and chairman, FICCI health services committee.
Jairam said his “immediate focus would be to ensure the operational efficiency of the existing hospitals”.
Asked whether oncology would be a special focus, Jairam said: “Oncology is underserved in Bengal as well as other parts of India. We will like to look at the opportunities.”
Medica Superspecialty Hospital off EM Bypassrecently launched its oncology unit.
Several other private hospitals along EM Bypass are setting up oncology units too.
Healthcare experts in Calcutta said foreign investors running private hospitals in the city would benefit the sector.
“What we need is more hospitals and more beds to be added so that more people can access healthcare. But acquiring existing hospitals will mean maintaining status quo. Now, there is a difference between demand and supply,” said the CEO of a national healthcare group that has a presence in the city.
“If there are big foreign investors and professional groups involved, the quality of caregiving can improve by enabling capabilities through investments in high-end equipment and technology. This benefit will pass on to patients,” he added.
The CEO, who did not wish to be named, said foreign investors coming to healthcare would have a dual impact, on society in terms of the quality of healthcare and also long-term return on investments they make.
“More competition means the cost of treatment will get revised downwards which will be beneficial to people,” he added.
The state government recently proposed a regulation on the rates of treatments in private hospitals.
The hospitals at a meeting opposed the government’s proposal and said it would be detrimental to growth in the private healthcare sector.