The Hyderabad-based Rainbow Children’s Hospital, a leading paediatric healthcare chain which has now made an entry into Bengaluru with two hospitals, has invested a total of Rs.135 crore. While the first facility on Bannerghatta Road is a 100-bed unit is set up at cost of Rs.45 crore and the second is a 200-bed multispecialty children hospital in Marathahalli where Rs.90 crore is invested. The paediatric healthcare major has been funded by CDC India Advisers which is a Development Finance Institution (DFI) wholly owned by the UK Government where $20 million is chipped in.
The Marathahalli facility with sub specialties under one roof including neurology, nephrology, gastroenterology, haematology, oncology, endocrinology and advanced paediatric surgery has an advanced perinatal center including fetal medicine and high-risk obstetrics.
Union Minister of Urban Development, Housing & Urban Poverty Alleviation & Parliamentary Affairs M Venkaiah Naidu will inaugurate the hospital on October 11, 2015.
This tertiary care children’s hospital houses an advanced Intensive Care Services (ICS) for newly born and children dedicating almost 35 per cent of the beds. It would cater Bengaluru and also offer transport services up to 200 km radius of the city. It has the largest tertiary NICU of 50 beds in the private sector.
“In India, we do not have children specialty hospitals on similar lines that of the developed world which are at least of 800 beds size. Tertiary care specialties for children are viewed not to be financially viable. There is also lack of expertise in the paediatric specialty. The high infrastructure cost is another deterrent. Unlike adult hospitals, children’s medical centres require skilled professionals on site 24x7 as 80% of cases in a children hospital are emergencies compared to 20% in adult hospitals”, said Dr Ramesh Kancharla, chairman and managing director, Rainbow Group of Hospitals at a press conclave.
Bengaluru is among the fastest growing cities with a large young parents and children population. There is a significant presence of multispecialty hospitals however, we would begin to cater as a referral centre of the existing adult corporate healthcare providers on a non-compete basis,” he added.
Rainbow Children’s Hospital has bagged several awards since its inception in Hyderabad on November 14, 1999. Currently it functions with 700 beds in six locations of Hyderabad, Vijayawada and Bengaluru.
“Our growth over 15 years with outpatients of 2. 5 lakh annually and admissions of 25,000 per year of which 40% in intensive care services reflects the need to build more specialty children’s hospital. Therefore, we see the requirement of multi-specialty children’s hospital in every Indian city with 20 lakh population. It registers around 25 percent revenue growth and 35 percent in volume terms. A paediatric hospital model requires 3 years to break-even, stated Dr. Kancharla.
“We have achieved several benchmarks including saving smallest of small and sickest of sick children with results similar to developed countries performing 80% of laparoscopic surgeries,” said Dr. Dinesh Chirla, director, Rainbow Group.
According to Prof Kishore Phadake, Clinical Director, Rainbow-Marathahalli, the maiden focus would be to save critically ill children. Sreenivasan Nagarajan, Nominee Director, CDC and Head of South Asia, CDC Group Plc. said that healthcare in India required long-term investment.