The Fortis acquired Wockhardt Hospitals plans to invest Rs 250 crore in Kolkata, Mumbai and Bangalore to complete the projects which are half way through.

The new projects coming up at Bangalore will see an investment of Rs 20 crore and Rs 150-crore at Kolkata. The remaining Rs 80 crore will be used for existing expansion which includes an additional 300-bed capacity at Mumbai.

Fortis will also enter the oncology space by setting up facilities in Mumbai and Bangalore with a total bed strength of 150 beds. These will be commissioned in fiscal 2010. The re-branding of the healthcare major will also be complete in Q1 of 2010.

Fortis which acquired Wockhardt’s 10 hospitals in August this year for Rs 909 crore and completed the process on December 1. It will now have a network of 39 hospitals and bed capacity increases from 3278 to 5180. It now extends its reach to 12 cities. It has now 3 JCI accredited facilities at Mumbai, Bangalore and Mohali. With this merger Fortis has been strengthened in the areas of cardiac surgery, neuro sciences, minimal access surgery , renal and liver transplants. All the 3,000 erstwhile Wockhardt staff are now part of Fortis group. There has been no retrenchment, Vishal Bali CEO Fortis Hospitals Group said in his maiden post merger media interaction here in Bangalore.

The head office of the largest hospital major will now be Bangalore.

Also Bangalore, will have an additional 200 beds at its existing hospital on the Bannerghatta Road. At Peenya there is a Greenfield construction of 120 beds in joint venture with the Kirloskar at Peenya. Its presence in this healthcare capital of the country will be across six hospitals, four associated centres and two information centres. The total bed capacity in Bangalore will be 1,000 by 2011 with 120 intensive care unit beds. Within Bangalore, this will be largest network for Fortis, said Bali.

In Kolkata, a 414 bed multi-specialty Greenfield project is coming up which will be commissioned in 2010. Focus areas are cardiology, neurosciences, nephrology and urology. This will give help the patients in North East India to access advanced care.

At Mumbai in Mulund and Kalyan additional 300 beds are being set up in two phases.

Another area of growth which Fortis intends to encash is the medical traveller business. Wockhardt through its two facilities in Bangalore and Mumbai contributed 35 per cent of its earnings from the medical tourism as India was recognized as the destination for the developed world. Now Fortis will grab a sizeable share of the business from this front through its quality and clinical excellence from North America, Russia, UAE, Africa, Indonesia. “Our facilities at Mumbai, Bangalore and New Delhi will be the front end to medical travellers,” said Bali.

“From an Indian healthcare perspective, the acquisition has been seamlessly integrated and adds value to patient to reach out to multi-specialty offering. India is much under served in the healthcare space and we need to increase capacity to reach at some level of penetration,” said Bali.