March 21, 2005
The Peninsula
Dr A Marthanda Pillai, chairman
and managing director of the Trivandrum based Ananthapuri
Hospitals and Research Institute (left), with other
AHRI officials.
DOHA: India is actively promoting its healthcare
facilities to attract patients from abroad, under
a new policy adopted by the government, Dr A Marthanda
Pillai, chairman and managing director of the Trivandrum-based
Ananthapuri Hospitals and Research Institute (AHRI)
said here yesterday.
Such promotions, he said, were expected
to draw a large number of patients, especially those
requiring critical surgery and life saving medical
procedures, from various parts of the world such
as Europe, he added.
Speaking to The Peninsula yesterday,
Dr Pillai disclosed that India’s Union Minister,
Renuka Chowdhary, had declared the government would
pay special attention to promoting the country as
a destination for quality medical treatment and
care and New Delhi was taking several steps aimed
at helping the development of state-of-the-art and
world class healthcare facilities.
Medical treatment that meets or
exceeds world standards, he said, were available
in India for just a tenth of what would cost in
countries in Europe. In addition, such treatment
could be availed quickly. In the UK alone, some
1.5m patients were in the waiting list to undergo
critical cardiac surgeries and other medical intervention,
renal transplants and hip operations. These persons
would be attracted to India since they can get treated
faster and cheaper once India’s healthcare
facilities are highlighted abroad, he added.
Dr Pillai was in Doha to seek investment
from the Indian expatriate community in the Rs940m,
500-bed, super-speciality project called the Ananthapuri
Hospital and Research Centre that opens in Trivandrum.
Phase-1 of the project is slated to open in May
offering a 100-bed hospital while the Phase-2, scheduled
for completion by March next year, would see the
facility in full operation.
NRIs can invest in the project with
Rs500,000 or in multiples of that amount, he added.
Till date, some Rs140m had been already mobilised
for the project while Rs360m would be from NRI investors
in the GCC region.
According to Dr Pillai, the hospital
would also serve the local community and NRIs. In
Kerala, cancer ranked as the largest killer followed
by cardiac ailments and road traffic accidents.
Cases of neurological disease were also on the rise,
he said. While cancer is a fall-out of increasing
life span, cardiac and neurological ailments had
several genetic reasons too.
