Apollo setting up own hospital in Bangalore

Bangalore is getting another super-speciality hospital. The Apollo group is ready with its Rs 155-crore hospital, down the same Bannerghatta Road in south Bangalore on which stands the franchisee Sagar Apollo.

With "From illness to wellness" as the motto, the hospital is banking on the increasing demand for preventive healthcare from IT and ITeS professionals in the city. "Lifestyle illnesses resulting from high stress jobs call for preventive healthcare.

Many corporates today offer preventive health check-ups to their employees through corporate hospitals but Bangalore seems short of hospitals for preventive medicine," said V P Kamath, chief executive officer of Apollo Hospital, Bangalore.

In phase I, the Hospital will have 250 beds and in phase II there will be a similar facility. But the effective number of beds will be more as the hospital will follow a hub and spoke model with the Bannerghatta Road facility acting as the hub and the super-speciality tertiary hospital.

Another five to eight centres will be set up across the city to act as spokes. Each satellite centre will be a 60-70 bed hospital and will have 3-4 specialists. Basic check-up, preventive counselling and secondary in-patient care will be provided at these centres. If there is a need for advanced treatment, patients will be referred to the main hospital on Bannerghatta Road.

The first satellite centre of the hospital has been set up in Malleswaram in north-western Bangalore.

In keeping with the norms governing the corporate world, the hospital will seek to address one of Bangalore's biggest shortages "" of parking space "" by providing for parking of 220 cars.