In an effort to cash in on healthcare service opportunities in diabetes management across the country, Apollo Hospitals Enterprise Ltd (AHEL) is planning to set up standalone diabetes clinics under the brand name Sugar Clinic.
The company is looking at tie-up with a foreign partner to offer diabetes management services to patients, said a senior official from AHEL.
The Sugar Clinic is a diabetes management programme where a person enrolls to be part of a periodic regime that includes health check up, monitoring and controlling diabetes and assessing its implications on the health. At present, there are around 20 Sugar clinics, which are housed in the premises of the hospitals or clinics of Apollo Hospitals.
"We have plans about (setting up) diabetes management clinics. Things are still at the drawing board stage and it might take a quarter before we decide how to go forward. We are talking to a major player in this regard as well potential global partners, to see how to get into diabetes management as a programme across the hospitals, clinics and the standalone clinics," said a company spokesperson.
The foreign tie-up would be more about technical know-how, and talks are pn with a firm that already has a leading diabetes management programme in place. What AHEL is looking at is the method and strategies to utlise this, the spokesperson said, while refusing to divulge more on the strategy.
However, he hinted that the Sugar Clinics could come up as separate division, not embedded with the current Apollo Clinics, although the format would be similar. The locations would be across the country, where Apollo already has its points of presence, currently. While there are other firms working on the diabetes segment, at least in Tamil Nadu, the company expects its strong patient base and patient connect would support it in winning the market.
Plans are to expand Sugar Clinics, with a target to complete around 100 clinics in next two years. The company has to create awareness among people about the disease and the necessity of managing it through out the life.
According to earlier reports, AHEL has developed technologies, including 24X7 call centre and mobile applications and a personalised webpages to assist the patients to manage diabetes. The technologies were developed by two of the Apollo Group subsidiaries, the health care BPO Apollo Health Street Ltd and healthcare management services firm HealthNet Global, added reports.