Nawaloka invests Rs 1b for hospital

Shirajiv SIRIMANE

Nawaloka Hospitals Limited, (NHL) will invest Rs. One billion to construct their new wing of the hospital in Colombo. This would add 100 more beds for the hospital increasing its capacity to 425.

Deputy Chairman and CEO of the NHL, Jayantha Dharmadasa said that the eight storied building would be opened by end of April this year. In addition the new complex would have 12 operating theaters, 35 consultation rooms, a large auditorium for training and lectures and several other facilities.

“We are also looking at training more nurses,” he said. He added that profits within the group were utilized for this investment and the new project would provide employment opportunities for nearly 400 increasing the staff strength to over 2,000. “The group turnover increased by 19 per cent to Rs. 1,986.7 million the highest level achieved in the history,” he said.

He said that they had invested over Rs. 120 million to acquire new technology, as they want to give the best for their patients.

The local private health care business is now getting more competitive with the annual turn over of around Rs 30 billion.

The major players in the private sector are Nawaloka, Durdens, Asiri, Asha Central, Apollo and Oasis.

He said that looking back Nawaloka was Sri Lanka’s first purposely built private hospital and the success of it is due to its investing on new technology. “The hospital will continue to invest in high technology, better business practices and improved efficiency methods to enhance return to our stake holders,” he said.

The company listed under the main board of the Colombo Stock exchange in 2004 has also tied up with Nexus cardholders, Janashakthi Insurance and Metropolis Health Service India, one of Asia’s leading laboratory chains.

He said that one of the biggest problems the industry is facing, is to retain trained medical staff from migrating to Australia, UK and elsewhere.

“In a bid to retain and encourage staff NHL offer a highly competitive remuneration package. This together with high electricity costs has rose by almost 14 percent to Rs. 77 million in the last financial year,” he said.