Ahmedabad, 3 May 2012

Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi today inaugurated Narayana Hrudayalaya’s Ahmedabad facility in presence of Dr. Kiran Mazumdar Shaw, CMD, Biocon and Director, Narayana Hrudayalaya hospitals, Ahmedabad Mayor Shri Asit Vora, and Narayana Hrudayalaya founder Dr. Devi Shetty at Ex.Monogram mill compound near Rakhial cross roads.

Narayana Hrudayalaya is in the process of setting up a 5000-bed health city with a medical college and nursing and paramedical educational institution in the 37 acre campus situated at Rakhial, Ahmedabad. the upcoming establishment will create a large possibility of providing direct and indirect employment from time to time and also add value in the development of the entire neighborhood.

Under the phase 1 of the Health city project, a 300-bed healthcare facility has been set up, which has all facilities such as advanced cardiology unit, cardiac surgical unit for adults and children along with Orthopedic, Neuro- Sciences, Urology, Nephrology, Critical care and medicine, Pediatrics, Gynecology, Gastro Sciences, Advance diagnostics like 1.5 Tesla MRI and 64 Slice CT scan, Mammography and so on.

In last few years while the western part of Ahmedabad city witnessed opening of around half a dozen new super specialty private hospitals, this is for the first time that a hospital of national repute is opening in east Ahmedabad.

Narayana Hrudayalaya’s founder Dr Devi Prasad Shetty was conferred with Padma Bhushan for Medicine in 2012. He won the 2011 The Economist Innovation Awards for the Business process field. Dr Devi Shetty is a medico philanthropist and a cardiac surgeon who has performed over 15,000 heart operations. He was a part of the seven-member panel of Board of Governors which replaced the Medical Council of India (MCI) and served for a period of one year before it was further reconstituted. His brainchild ‘Yeshasvini’-the world’s cheapest comprehensive health insurance scheme, at Rs.5 per month, designed by Dr Shetty and Government of Karnataka for the poor farmers of the state, is a very well-utilized scheme in Karnataka with 25 lakhs people covered.

The Narayana Hrudayalaya group now has 14 hospitals having collective capacity of 6000 beds in 11 locations covering 7 states. the NH group is in the process of expanding its services to five more cities within the next six months. The cost of healthcare, especially tertiary healthcare is becoming unaffordable to the common man in India. The NH group’s desire is to reduce the cost of tertiary healthcare by building large scale health cities with 2000-5000 beds, sharing the infrastructure and expertise and thereby, through the economy of the scale, reduce the input costs. In the process, the group also delivers better outcomes because of great technical skills developed over a period of time. The NH group performs largest number of heart and other super-specialty surgeries in India attracting patients from 76 countries.

The NH group conceptualized the idea of micro health insurance called Yeshasvini, which was launched by the Karnataka State Cooperative Society eight year ago. The Yeshasvini proved to the world that with Rs. 5 per month premium, a viable health insurance programme can be scaled up to cover the tertiary healthcare coast of millions of people. The group has the desire to roll out similar schemes with the help from various state governments across the country. India needs 2.5 million heart surgeries a year. Unfortunately, all the heart hospitals in the country put together perform less than 1,00,000 heart operations a year. The NH group is in the process of building low cost heart hospitals across the country using prefabricated construction materials. The first such hospital is being built by L&T, India’s largest construction company in Mysore. This has proved that a 300-bed low cost heart hospital can be built in six months with an investment of about 6-7 million dollar all inclusive. NH believes that the entire delivery concept of healthcare wil undergo a dramatic change and India will become the first country in the world to dissociate healthcare from affluence.Ten years from now, India will still have large number of people living in the slums which lack basic amenities. However, when they are unwell, they wll have access to high-tech healthcare with dignity.

Inaugural function

Inaugurating the facility Chief Minister Narendra Modi today said that Gujarat Government has allotted Rs.200-crore in the budget for the timely treatment of serious diseases of poor patients Below Poverty Line (BPL) for assistance of Rs.2-lakh under the Chief Minister’s Amritam Yojna. He said that Gujarat is also ahead in preventive medicine.

Modi said the government has allotted 37 acres land for the hospital just one-and-half months back and the 300-bed hospital began functioning from today taking a fee of Rs.10 from the poor patients.

Expressing satisfaction at the modern facility for the poor, he said that the state government has taken many schemes for the well-being of children and expecting mothers. Delivery at institutional maternity has reached 97 per cent as 108 Emergency Service has reached far and wide.

Shri Modi wished the hospital expands to 5,000-bed capacity fast, start a medical college. The government has also started Chiranjeev Healthcare, CNG Transport for pollution free atmosphere, providing drinking water from the Narmada to the Sabarmati and nutritious food the needy to improve basic physical infrastructure.

Narayana Rudralaya Hospital Chairman Shri Devi Shetty welcomed the Gujarat Government’s policy of Public-Private Partnership providing healthcare at affordable cost. The hospital will start a medical school for poor children in two years.

Those present on the occasion included Ahmedabad Mayor Asit Vora, Principal Health Secretary Rajesh Kishore, Vice-Chairman Ashutosh Raghuvanshi and Smt Kiran Shetty.

Kiran Mazumdar Shaw speaking at inaugural function of Ahmedabad facility of Narayan Hrudayalaya

Dr. Devi Shetty’s speech at inaugural function of Narayana Hrudayalaya Ahmedabad Health City

Insightful and interesting interaction with Dr. Devi Shetty of Narayana Hrudayalaya(Video)