<div><strong>Paramita Chatterjee</strong><br><br>Medanta Medicity, a super-specialty hospital promoted by Naresh Trehan, plans to expand its footprint in the domestic market with hospitals in states like Lucknow, Noida and Patna. In the second tranche of expansion, it plans to hit areas in northeast as it looks take regenerative and transfusion medicine to areas where these facilities are not currently present, said Trehan, Chairman and Managing Director at Medanta Medicity.</div><div> </div><div>Medanta, which is funded by private equity giant Carlyle and Singapore's state investment company Temasek, recently forayed into Indore and Ranchi and launched multi-super specialty hospitals with 150 and 130 beds, respectively.</div><div> </div><div>The Indian healthcare sector has some of the best and worst of what the world’s systems have to offer. As per a new book on healthcare by Mark Britnell, Chairman of KPMG Global Health, “In Search of the Perfect Health System,” which is slated to hit the Indian stores next month, there is a huge gap between demand and supply in the healthcare sector at the moment. Consider this: Of 1.2 billion population in the country, only around 300 million have any kind of health insurance. As per a chapter dedicated to India, the country currently spends very little on healthcare – just 4 per cent of GDP or $61 per person per year.</div><div> </div><div>What’s adding to healthcare woos is the paucity of doctors, nurses and support staff across the country. As per a 2014 report by PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC), India’s bed density is the lowest among the BRIC nations, while 70 per cent of the available beds are concentrated in the top 20 cities alone. As per the same report, domestic healthcare infrastructure requires an additional 6.5 lakh beds that is also expected to throw up investment opportunities for risk capital investors such as private equity and venture capital firms.</div><div> </div><div>“All indicators reflect that the current situation is way below what ideally should be,” said Trehan, adding “human capital is a big problem today and there is a long gestation period that one needs to work on.” However, even in the current situation where resources are scarce, the government, hospitals and NGOs can work together instead of operating in silos in putting things in place. “There should be a synergy in the way all three operate,” he added.</div><div> </div><div>Medicity plans to launch its wellness section soon on the World Heart where people can walk in and map their lives and lifestyles.</div>
