Paras Healthcare focuses on expansion to underserved communities post-pandemic – ET HealthWorld

Speaking on expansion plans, Dr Dharminder Nagar, Managing Director, Paras Healthcare Group, said, “If anything, the pandemic has highlighted the critical need for high-quality, accessible health care. Within the next two to three years, we are planning to have 3,000 operational beds. Our 200-bed facility in Srinagar should start by October 2022 and a 435-bed hospital in Kanpur by April 2023. We expect to be operating a 400-bed hospital in Ludhiana by February 2025; a 350-bed facility in Meerut by April 2025, and a 300-bed facility in Jammu by September 2025. The Panchkula facility is already functional, but we will be adding 260 beds by April 2025. We might look at Faridabad too, in the near future.”

“Within the next five years or so, the healthcare sector will witness explosive growth as a whole. We have entered an era where health insurance will become a fundamental right in the next five to ten years, and whether it is through private insurance or public insurance, almost every citizen will be covered to some extent. Second, after the reform of the Medical Council of India (MCI), the country is going to produce roughly 100,000 MBBS students a year and 50,000 post-graduates. This is going to increase the availability of doctors all across the country. Demand and supply-side growth will translate into explosive growth for the sector,” he added.

” Apart from the worrying low doctor-patient ratio, quality cardiologists, oncologists, surgeons, and diagnostic techniques remain mostly clustered in specific hospitals in metropolitan cities. Thus, if a person in a remote town suffers from a cardiac condition and needs immediate care, he or she has to travel all the way to metro cities to get treated. This is a stark reality for millions of people, even when they can afford the cost of world-class healthcare. Contrary to common perception, this lack of quality healthcare is not just limited to the economically deprived sections of society. Even relatively well-to-do people often find it difficult to access reliable healthcare advice and treatment. Even as hospitals and facilities come up all over the landscape, trustworthy and reliable medical facilities are scattered too far and few. Reaching out to the untapped markets is a win-win proposition for patients as well as providers,” said Dr Nagar.