Wockhardt to set up 2nd hospital in Mumbai

Leading pharma and healthcare group Wockhardt is planning to set up another super-speciality hospital in Mumbai. The greenfield project has been planned at an investment of Rs 250 crore.

The 200-bed hospital will be located in south Mumbai and the company is close to acquiring the land for the project, sources said.

However, Wockhardt sources declined to comment on the new project.

Sources close to the development said that the hospital project is currently in the planning stage and the exact location will be finalised shortly. The group had set up its first multi-speciality hospital in the city in 2002 at Mulund, a fast developing central suburb.

Sources told Business Standard that Wockhardt Hospitals has now embarked on a major expansion drive in the country. It is planning 3 more hospitals-one each in Bangalore, Kolkata and New Delhi.

The group currently operates 6 super-speciality hospitals across the country with specialisation in cardiology, orthopedics, neurology, minimal access surgery and urology.

Wockhardt Hospitals has become one of the leading providers of healthcare services in cardiac surgery, joint replacements and hip resurfacing for international patients from the UK, US, Europe, Africa, West Asia and south east Asia.

Its Mumbai hospital recently became the first super- speciality hospital in South Asia to receive accreditation from the Joint Commission International (JCI), which is the global benchmark in accreditation for quality-focused healthcare organisations.

With this, the hospital has joined a select league of 71 hospitals in the world, which have passed JCI's stringent clinical quality standards worldwide to achieve this coveted accredition.

Wockhardt Hospitals has an exclusive association in India with Harvard Medical International (HMI), the global arm of the Harvard Medical School.

HMI and Wockhardt are currently in the process of implementing a performance improvement plan, which began in May 2003, to help create a sustainable quality improvement model for the hospital.

A care and quality improvement council having representatives from various areas of the hospital is driving the implementation of the plan. Committees have been formed to focus on different aspects of quality and patient care, such as infection control, health information management, patient safety and clinical quality performance indicators.

The hospital has also tied up with the global medical insurance company, Signa, to provide cash-free treatment to its international patients, who are enrolled with Signa, in India.

Innovative spine surgery launched

Wockhardt Hospital has introduced the world's latest innovation in spine surgery-Percutaneous Endoscopic Lumbar Discectomy (PELD), a minimally invasive slipped disc surgery done while a patient remains awake.

PELD held under local anaesthesia results in a patient getting discharged within 24 hours to resume work, said Vikas Gupte, spine surgeon at the Wockhardt Spine Centre in Mumbai.