After establishing two hospitals in Kerala, new generation hospital chain AyurVAID Hospitals will set up 40 ayurveda hospitals integrated with modern medicines across the country, said AyurVAID Managing Director Rajiv Vasudevan.
AyurVAID, at present has a 15-bed hospital in Kochi and a 60-bed one in Aluva. The third one- a 25-bed facility is all set to be opened here, said Vasudevan.
Five more hospitals are planned in the first phase over the next six-eight months.
"We are looking at a mix of metros, tier-II cities and perhaps one tier-III city (for opening the five hospitals)", Vasudevan said.
"The goal is to have 40 hospitals (both company-owned and company-managed) in four years", he added.
Two-third of the proposed 40 hospitals would be 15-bed ones and the remaining 50-bed ones.
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"We will focus on bottom of the pyramid with 60 per cent of its capacity focussed on poor patients", he said.
AyurVAID had received a Rs 4.5 crore funding from Acumen, one of the world's largest fund for social ventures, with the latter picking up a minority stake in AyurVAID, a division of Kerala First Health services Pvt Ltd.
The money is sufficient for expansion plans in the first phase, he said, indicating that funds for the bigger roll-out thereafter would not be a problem.
"There is active interest by a lot of people in the sector", he added noting that establishing Ayurveda hospitals is not capital-intensive.