Vijayawada :

Ramesh Hospitals here, which specialises in cardiac care, has tied up with the Piramal group to extend its services to other towns and semi-urban areas in Andhra Pradesh. It is also constructing a 350-bed hospital in Guntur, according to Ramesh Babu, the promoter.

At a press meet here on Monday, Ramesh Babu said he had set up the hospital 25 years ago and for the first time brought advanced equipment and expert cardiac care to the city. “We have two hospitals here and are proposing to set up another one in Guntur. We also have a satellite centre at Eluru in West Godavari and we have several tele medicine centres,” he said.

With a view to extending medical services to other areas, he said the group had tied up with India Venture Advisors Pvt Ltd of the Piramal group, and the company had picked up stake in Ramesh Hospitals. However, he said the details were being worked out and he could not specify the stake at this juncture.

He said the hospital had treated over 5 lakh patients in Krishna, Guntur, Godavari, Prakasam, Khammam, and Nalgonda districts over the past 25 years. It also offered a diploma course in clinical cardiology to general physicians concentrating on research. “We have plans to set up a medical college,” he said.

P. Ravi Kiran, Chief Financial Officer of Ramesh Hospitals, said roughly Rs 50 crore would be spent on the hospital coming up at Guntur and “our ultimate aim is to increase the bed strength to 1,000 in the next four years or so.”

Yogita, Vice-President of India Advisors Pvt Ltd, said the company was managing funds close to Rs 400 crores and it had launched another healthcare and life sciences fund of Rs 500 crore recently. “Ramesh Hospitals is the first one we have tied up with in Andhra Pradesh and it will give us access to extend our services to coastal Andhra Pradesh,” she said.

source: http://www.thehindubusinessline.com / Business Line / Home> News> National / The Hindu Bureau  – sarma.rs@thehindu.co.in / Vijayawada, April 08th, 2013