Leading health service provider Apollo group today signed up its 100th Apollo clinic franchise.
The 100th clinic would be set up in Rajerhat, a township coming up in Kolkata, Chairman of Apollo Hospitals Dr Prathap C Reddy told reporters here.
The hospital also proposed to open another 100 Apollo clinics in the country in another two years,he said.
"To increase penetration and geographical reach of our clinics, we have adopted the franchise route for expansion. The idea is to supplement our knowledge and expertise in the healthcare domain with franchisee's understanding of the local market", he said.
He said Apollo Group would tie up with Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU) to launch different courses in Chennai and Hyderabad for the doctors in order to improve their disciplines.
"Like in Delhi,we would be offering short term courses for the doctors in various disciplines with the help of IGNOU at Chennai and Hyderabad this year",
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He said to start with the two-week course would be in Cardiology and Diabetes discipline, the area which has acute shortage of doctors.
"Other disciplines would also be introduced gradually".
On the other new initiatives, Reddy said Apollo hospital had tied up with Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) to launch the latest and comprehensive hospital management software.
"The sofware, to be launched by this year, would help the hospital to keep track of the patient record permanently".