Metropolis Healthcare Limited will start three new labs in Miraj, Latur and Ratanagiri with a goal to provide affordable diagnostic tests in tier 2 and tier 3 cities of Maharashtra and 4 new labs, 17 collection centres in Mumbai. The company aims to start up 3 to 4 new labs every year to have a deeper presence in Maharashtra. At present there are ten centres in Maharashtra at Solapur, Kolahpur, Dhule, Mumbai, Pune, Nashik, Aurangabad, Satara, Nagpur and Navi Mumbai.

Ameera Shah, managing director and chief executive officer of Metropolis Healthcare says, “The opportunities in tier 2, tier 3 cities are increasing and requirement of doctors and patients are also increasing so, obviously we want to be there to fulfill their requirement. Our goal is to be able to provide world class diagnostic tests which are affordable to the people in their own cities, so that they do not have to travel for every test to the major cities.”

She further adds, “The local path-labs in tier 2 and tier 3 cities are not able to provide the same test menu as we do. They do very limited amount of tests and obviously the quality levels are very different. We follow the global practices and some of them don't. So the level of accuracy, level of professional service and customer experience is different. Today the test available in local path labs provides nearly 200 varieties of test. We provide 4,500 tests and we do 300 to 400 tests locally which are common tests.”

Speaking about the challenges in tier 2, tier cities, Shah said that the infrastructure, getting license locally and the lack of awareness in the doctors are the major problem. “In most of the places in Maharashtra power supply and water shortage is still a problem, so we have to plan accordingly. We conduct lots of health education with doctors to make them understand about different kinds of tests and how to interpret the reports,” Shah says.

“The government's role in this industry is less proactive. Their job is to create policy reform, where they can create a platform in the environment, which will facilitate the private player to provide services because the government in not an expert in providing healthcare services. Most of the countries create systems or partnership with the private sectors. In our country unfortunately the government is into providing healthcare services which is becoming big issue because especially for approximately 1 billion population the government does not have the bank lift, focus or the capabilities to provide good quality healthcare. Its not easy to provide healthcare to such a large population from revenue point of view. That is why the healthcare is local and given on the contract basis to the private hospitals. The government should make a policy and check whether the private healthcare are meeting the minimum standards,” says Shah.

The company has its headquarters in Mumbai, where 4,500 varieties of tests are done with accurate reports. The local labs conduct 300 to 400 common tests and for major tests like genetic test, HIV test etc. and samples are sent to Mumbai headquarters. It also caters to India as well as Sri Lanka, UAE, South Africa, Kenya, Mauritius and Ghana.