SevenHills Health City, Mumbai

SevenHills Groups is coming up with its second hospital project

Location: Located three kilometers from the Chattrapati Shivaji International Airport of Mumbai.

When did construction start: Early 2006.

Time of commissioning: January 2010.

Promoters: SevenHills Group of Hospitals.

Total number of beds: It would start with 300-beds in January, this year and then scale it up to 1,500 beds as the demand arises.

Budget (inclusive of cost of land, construction and equipment): Rs 1,000-crore.

Other hospitals of the group: SevenHills Hospital has been delivering healthcare services at the highest level, since past 25 years at Vishakhapatnam. It is recognised as a leader in medical and surgical field and has been serving as an advanced multi-speciality referral centre in tertiary care, at affordable price not only to populace of Vishakhapatnam and Andhra Pradesh, but also to the neighbouring states.

Type of investment: The funding for the project is a mixture of debt and equity.

Corporate or trust hospital: Corporate.

Single speciality or multi-speciality: Multi-speciality with 40 disciplines of medicine and surgery.

Total area of the land: 17 acres.

Total square feet area of the hospital: Around three million square feet.

Any subsidy taken from the Government and what is the arrangement with the Government against that: Says Dr Sanjay Sharma, VP, Hospital Services Development, SevenHills, Mumbai, "It is Public Private Partnership with Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation. The land is on lease rent basis from BMC, for 60-years. Three hundred beds are at subsidised rates for BMC and 1,200 beds at normal tariff for the rest of public."

"For a population of 25 million, Mumbai has only 37,000 beds in both public and private set-up. We want to address this gap" - Dr Sanjay Sharma VP, Hospital Services Development SevenHills, Mumbai

About architecture: "SevenHills Hospital, Mumbai is built on international norms, more on the concept of health city with thee million square feet of built up area, spread over 17 acres of land, having 300 residential complexes for consultant doctors, making them available 24X7 within the hospital along with advanced study centre for the doctors, nursing college and R&D centre. Hospital building itself has two million square feet built up area, constituting of 16 blocks, each block divided into 11 levels, with an underground parking for over 1,500 vehicles. Entire hospital is centrally air-conditioned and environmentally sealed to ensure optimum comfort with ideal asepsis and hygiene," says Dr Sharma.

Reason for choosing to invest in Mumbai: "For a population of 25 million, Mumbai has only 37,000 beds in both public and private set-up. We want to address this gap. And also the fact that Mumbai has good infrastructure and that it attracts lot of tourists from outside the city being a financial capital were the other reasons for the hospital in Mumbai," says Dr Sharma. The location of the hospital is also crucial. "There is no hospital in the Eastern part of Western Express Highway from Dahisar to Ghatkopar side," adds Dr Sharma.

Vision and mission: 'Our vision and mission is to ensure quality care which is affordable and accessible to all," says Dr Sharma.

USP of the project: "The fact that at 1,500 beds, it would be Asia's largest hospital. It would also be a hub for research activity," says Dr Sharma. Academic courses are being planned in medical, nursing and technical areas supported with well stocked library and seminar halls.

The hospital would comprise 300 critical care beds, 36 modular Operation Theatres, four cath labs, 24 dialysis units, 120 outpatient clinics besides a host of other facilities supported by the most advanced in-house laboratories performing a complete range of investigative tests in the field of nuclear medicine, radiology, bio-chemistry, haematology, transfusion medicine, and microbiology. Being close to the international airport, hospital would be able to reap the benefits of medical tourism. An exclusive floor is designed with 100 luxury suite rooms dedicated for international medical tourists and VIPs along with spa facility.

Centrally air-conditioned: Yes.

About Technology that is latest in the area: In diagnostics services, it has PET- CT, 3 Tesla MRI, SPECT/CT, gamma camera, digital x-rays, mammography, fully automatic analysers, hematology counters, ESWL, diagnostic and therapeutic endoscopes in all specialties and pulmonary functional analysis, sleep lab, audiometry, ultrasound, echo, TMT, EMG, EEG, Holter, etc.

In therapeutic services, it has LINAC with IGRT, brachytherapy by varisource, navigation system for joint replacement, neuro-surgical suite, LDRP suites, LASIK laser, operating microscopes, holmium laser, etc. "In the pipeline are intra-operative MRI for brain surgery and robotic surgery," says Dr Sharma.

Environment-friendly measures: Special emphasis has been put on environment friendliness at the SevenHills Mumbai, with 1,000 trees and 25 per cent area dedicated to green and open spaces.

Use of IT: The hospital would be IT enabled and fully covered under Wifi Zone, nearly paperless with digital radiography and RFID tracking system. "Our IT system would also be unique in storing medical data of patients on our website, which patients can access. We would also have on-line appointments," says Dr Sharma.

Number of clinicians and non-clinicians to be hired: The hospital in the first phase would hire around 100 consultants, 400 nurses and around 50 administrators.

Ways to market it: "Our aim is to spread maximum awareness and inform public at large, presenting a broad overview on how all of us can achieve the state of wellbeing without undergoing extensive investigations and treatments at the hospital. 'Health Byte' brings regular health updates in the form of a newsletter to public, at their doorsteps. 'Health 360 degree programme' educates public at large on precautions and prevention with regards to common ailments via health talks and camps. Through 'Gurukul' for medicos, we organise seminars about latest treatment modalities," says Dr Sharma.

Future plans: To spread quality healthcare which is affordable and accessible to all.

rita.dutta@expressindia.com