Hemas to expand into regions

Rs 450 m Galle Hospital opens in January:

Shirajiv SIRIMANE

Hemas Hospital will invest Rs. 450 m for the Southern hospital they acquired last year. This is in addition to the Rs. 1.5 billion they infused to the 100-bed Hemas Hospital that was opened in Wattala last Saturday.

Chairman Hemas Hospitals, Murtaza Esufally speaking to Daily News Business said the Galle hospital with 50 beds will be officially opened in January.

Director in charge of private hospitals, Dr. Amal Harsha de Silva and Chairman Hemas Hospitals and Director, Murtaza Esufally and invitees after launching the website of the hospital. Picture by Sumanachandra Ariyawansa

“We are also looking at opening smaller family hospitals in Kandy, Kurunegala and Embilipitiya after around two years,” he said.

The Hemas Group is the major investor and will be the managers of the hospital.

It has as strategic investors Columbia Asia (an international chain of hospitals operating in Malaysia, India, Indonesia, and several other Asian countries), Brandix, MJF Holdings and other high net worth international investors. Commenting on the investment he said Hemas Holdings have invested Rs. 900 million while the balance was financed from debt.

“Out of the Rs. 900 million 65 per cent was invested by Hemas while the shareholders provided the balance.”

“The global recession has not hit the healthcare sector in a major way in Sri Lanka and we are confident to break even our investment in three years,” he said.

“There is a shortage of consultants in Sri Lanka especially in the city. “However we have observed that consultants attached to the Ragama hospital find in difficult to travel to Colombo and we have managed to attract them.

We believe patients travelling to Colombo will also use this opportunity,” he said. “We are proud to launch this truly technologically advanced family hospital, built in collaboration with the Columbia Asia Hospital Chain, the renowned hospital operator in Asia,” he said.

Among the wide ranging services at Wattala include modern operating theatres with guided air flow systems, the first-ever such installation in Sri Lanka, MRI scanning (the first ever open magnet MRI installation in Sri Lanka); 10 bed ICU with cutting edge technology to manage critically ill patients, private labour suites and modern NICU (Premature Baby Unit) Pharmacy and 24 hour OPD and many more.

The Hospital had its soft opening with limited operations in August this year and has already handled over 10,000 in-house and OPD patients to date.

The hospital project was completed in 18 months as planned and the ICC while the Project handled Construction Architect and Manager were Rukshan Widyalankara Associates.