Apollo Hospitals to open 5 more info centres

Apollo Hospitals is planning to open five more information centres across the country, including one at Nellore.

The centre would furnish relevant information to patients who prefer to come to any of the Apollo Hospitals in the country. It would also function as an out-patient camp.

Speaking on the sidelines of inaugurating an information centre at Trichy on Thursday, Karthik Rajagopal, general manager (healthcare services), Apollo Hospitals, said this was the 27th centre in the country and fifth in the state.

Apollo already has information centres at Kancheepuram, Kumbakonam, Karaikal and Pondicherry.

"We prefer to establish our presence where adequate super specialty facilities and medical facilities are not available," Rajagopal said.

He also said that of the total number of patients coming to Apollo Hospitals, Chennai, locals constituted just 30 per cent while the remaining came from eastern and the north-eastern part of the country, and from other districts of Tamil Nadu.

The group offers tele-medicine services at 95 centres and was planning to increase the number to 150 by the end of this financial year, he added.

He said the 225-bed hospital, planned at Bangalore (Imperial Apollo), would be launched in September and would become fully operational by 2007. The group was also planning to set up a chain of heart hospitals dedicated to cardiology in the country, he added.