Lotus Eye care on Expansion
HOSPITALS in Coimbatore are on an expansion mode with the city’s medical skyline expanding with super speciality hospitals and the state government aiming to promote the city as a medical tourism destination. Lotus Eye Care Hospital expects the number of overseas patients that currently account for 3% of the hospital’s total inbound patients, to shoot up to 30% in the next three years. According to Tamil Nadu Tourism Development Corporation (TTDC), in 2006, Coimbatore district had attracted 35.09 lakh tourists and in 2007 it was 28 lakh (till September).
The number of international tourists visiting the district is also going up. Selva K Sundaramurthy, chairman and founder of Lotus Eye Care hospital, said: “We have patients coming from countries like Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and West Asia. But limitations in air connectivity pose a big challenge to medical tourism.” Lotus specialises in super-specialty service related to eye care. The company has a network of four eye care hospitals based at Coimbatore, Salem and Tirupur. Total bed strength of all the centres is 120, excluding eye camp beds. The hospital needs about Rs 55 crore to finance expansion of existing facilities, establishing new centres and meet working capital requirement. In 2006-07, Lotus Eye Care reported net profit of Rs 1.28 crore on a total income of Rs 7.29 crore.
