Chennai, India (CU)_ Apollo Hospitals of Chennai has inked an agreement with Imperial Hospital Limited of Chattogram to provide Bangladeshi patients with access to world-class care. As part of this deal, Apollo Hospitals will run and administer the Apollo Imperial Hospital, which has 375 beds.
According to reports, Apollo would receive a basic management fee and a percentage of the overall profit for running the hospital established by Rabiul Hussain in Chattogram. The auto-renewable 10-year contract will come into effect in July of this year and is intended to deliver secondary and some tertiary care services to patients.
Following the formal signing ceremony between the two groups in Chennai, Prof. Rabiul Husain, chairman of Imperial Hospital, expressed delight over the merging. He said, “We are happy that Apollo Hospitals Chennai came to help us to run a hospital. We are very hopeful and confident that we will set up a very good healthcare facility that will help many poor patients.” He added, “It is not easy for some patients to travel abroad. Our hospital will relieve these patients of the hassle, which will be an achievement. With the collaboration of Apollo Hospitals, we want to move forward. We aim to share technology”.
According to MA Malek, a senior member of the board of directors of Imperial Hospital Limited, “Every day many people come from Bangladesh for treatment at Apollo Chennai. Not all the people who came here from Bangladesh are rich. We want Apollo Chennai to bring these facilities to Chattogram and provide treatment to our local people so that they do not have to go to India, Thailand or Singapore for treatment”.
According to Prathap C Reddy, chairman of Apollo Hospitals Ltd, “Many patients from Bangladesh come to India for treatment. However, there are a lot of costs associated with traveling. We hope with this hospital, some of the patients would not have to travel as they would get the same care and treatment as they would have gotten at Apollo in India.”
According to the statistics of the Indian government, around 6,000 patients from Bangladesh travel to India for tertiary care operations. One of the major benefactors of medical tourism from Bangladesh is Bengal. Apollo administrators believe that several patients will continue to visit India despite the availability of world class care in the new facility.
The hospital network includes facilities in 25 countries, including the United Kingdom, Mauritius, Egypt, Barbados, Vietnam, Fiji Island, Bahrain, and Nigeria, with future expansions planned for Sri Lanka, Ethiopia, Kenya, Ghana, Zambia, Cameroon, the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, and Samoa.
