The Fortis Healthcare Medicity, the healthcare delivery and learning centre under development in Gurgaon, is all set to start its first phase of operations with three centres of excellence by October 2010.

The project, which aims to set up a 1000 beds multi-specialty hospital and learning centre under the fast growing hospital chain - Fortis Healthcare Ltd, will have nearly 400 beds for three centres of excellence - Oncology, Trauma Care and Paediatric Care - in the first phase of operations, informed Shivinder Mohan Singh, managing director, Fortis Healthcare Ltd.

The company, in January announced its plan to raise funds by way of issue of Equity Shares with warrants on a rights basis aggregating to Rs 1000 crore for its future operations including the Medicity project. The Medicity, comprising medical care facilities for all diseases - tertiary care super speciality hospitals conforming to international scale and standards and education and training facilities for all types of medical and health personnel, is coming up in a space of 1500000 sq ft at Gurgaon, Delhi. The company has christened the Medicity as Fortis Healthcare international Institute of Medical Sciences (FIIMS).

"The construction works for the Medicity is halfway at present and the first phase operations will be started by Diwali next year. The Medicity, when completed, will be the mother of all the Fortis' facilities," said Singh. He said that the three therapeutic areas for the phase one has been selected due to the lack of adequate facilities in these areas in the country at present.

The proposed Medicity project, with an expected investment of Rs 800 crore, will also have a full-fledged medical college for under graduate and post graduate courses that would over time be affiliated to the leading medical schools/institutions of either USA or Europe, a dental college for under graduate and post graduate courses, a nursing college, a College of Technical Training in different disciplines of medical services and facilities for primary and applied research in medicine, bio sciences and clinical trials.

The Rs 1000 crore fund to be raised from the rights issue will be used for green field operations including Medicity and two more hospitals, which are under pipeline, and some of the money will be reserved for inorganic growth, said Singh. However, he refused reveal more on the plans. The company has six hospital projects active in its pipeline, he added.

The pipeline includes projects to set up a 500-bed hospital in Shalimar Bagh, New Delhi with centres of excellence in cardiac sciences, gastro-intestinal and renal care and another hospital at South Delhi, according to the company website.

Fortis Healthcare, with 16 large and 12 small hospital facilities established in various parts of the country, has its strategy to focus on developing facilities in tier one and tier two cities out of the Metro cities to offer better healthcare services to the people in these area. However, the company has no plans to avoid Metro cities in its growth strategy, added Singh. The company has plans to add almost 3000 to 6000 beds over the next three years both through green field and acquisition modes.

The company has recently added four hospitals in Mauritius, Bangalore and Kota and S L Raheja in Mumbai to expand its network to a total of 28 hospitals with the capacity to increase inpatient beds to approximately 3300 beds.