Tag: Narayana Health

Vaccination was never a business for us; non-COVID biz back to pre-pandemic levels: Narayana Health

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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Revenues from COVID-19 vaccinations had shot up to as much as 12 percent of sales in Q1 for hospital companies but have now reduced with some hospitals having to even cancel vaccination orders.

While discussing this with CNBC-TV18, Viren Shetty, ED and Group COO of Narayana Health said, “Vaccination was never a business line for hospitals like ours.”

“We did what we had to do to take care of the needs of society. We ordered as many vaccines as required and we took care of it,” he said.

“We are tying up with NGOs, partnered with huge corporates to take vaccines out to the masses. We are going to the rural areas and vaccinating people at their homes,” he added.

Also Read: Australia recognises Covishield vaccine ahead of border opening

When asked if the non-COVID business is back to the pre-pandemic level, Shetty said, “We are absolutely back to the levels that we had seen pre-COVID. Operation theaters are full, ICUs are full, we have a large number of patients in the wards, it is very difficult to get a bed now, which is a good thing in a sense the normal business is back.”

“We barely have any occupancies in the COVID wards, there are one-two patients that do come, generally senior people or people with co-morbid conditions but not much,” he added.

There was an expectation that there would be a change in the business models for hospitals that there would be a shift towards the digital space for hospitals.

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In terms of a structural shift towards the digital space for hospitals which was observed during COVID-19 pandemic like digital consulting, Shetty said, “It has come down but that is only because physical OPDs have improved and certain doctors don’t have enough time to dedicate towards online patients. It doesn’t mean that there aren’t patients lining up, they absolutely are. So, we would hire doctors whose only jobs are to see patients online. It is not the desperate situation where people couldn’t leave their homes, couldn’t drive to the hospital, or were terrified of coming and visiting the doctor. That drove that initial spurt of online consultation. So, the behaviour is still there, the way we implement it will have to change.”

Also Read: Hospital stocks surge on earnings recovery; industry experts discuss business outlook going ahead

On Sputnik-V, he said, “Sputnik was one of the last drugs to get approved and to get into the market. There wasn’t a tremendous amount of enthusiasm from all corners, most people were happy with Covishield and Covaxin. So, we didn’t order as many to start with and it has two very interesting challenges – it has to be stored at a much colder temperature and the other problem was dose one and dose two are two different vaccines.”

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Aditya Khemka, Fund Manager at InCred AMC believes that the hospitals business is a very secular growth story and the business is highly profitable.

“We remain extremely constructive on hospitals as a space. We believe the Indian healthcare spend will grow at 15-18 percent over the next decade and hospitals being the largely privatized area will significantly benefit from this secular growth over the next decade,” he said.

For the entire discussion, watch the accompanying video.

Elon Musk forms several ‘X Holdings’ companies to fund potential Twitter buyout

3 Mins Read

Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

Hospital stocks surge on earnings recovery; industry experts discuss business outlook going ahead

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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The exuberance seen in the hospital stocks is on the back of factors such as growing healthcare awareness post-COVID-19 and recovery in earnings as seen in Q1, according to analysts. In an interview with CNBC-TV18, Viren Shetty, executive director & group COO of Narayana Health and Ashutosh Raghuvanshi, MD & CEO of Fortis Healthcare spoke at length about what lies ahead for the hospital business.

First up, Shetty said that COVID-19 will not be a big pie of hospital revenues going forth. “As it gets minor, the need for hospitalisation isn’t that much except for very severe cases and vaccinations have never been a big part of hospital revenues,” he said.

Also Read: Three hospital chains mulling IPO rollout, aim to raise Rs 6,300 crore: Report

Coining similar views, Raghuvanshi of Fortis Healthcare said that the vaccine and COVID-related revenues had limited potential.

“COVID, as it becomes an endemic illness, will be just like any other infectious disease and that will form not so significant part of revenue if we have to look at it as a stream. Similar is the situation with vaccines as well,” said Raghuvanshi.

Also Read: Basket approach best way to look at hospital stocks: Prakash Diwan

On expansion, he added that the company was focusing on brownfield expansion in its hospitals.

“We are focusing on increasing brownfield expansion in our given hospitals to the tune of 1,300 beds over the next 3 years and then a further 1000 beds in next 2 years. So in next 5 years, it becomes about 2,400 beds and other than that we will look for inorganic expansion which would be brownfield kind of expansion and not necessarily greenfield, but we are bullish about growth at the moment,” said Raghuvanshi.

For the entire discussion, watch the video

Elon Musk forms several ‘X Holdings’ companies to fund potential Twitter buyout

3 Mins Read

Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

COVID-19 occupancies very less; prepared for any eventuality, says Narayana Health

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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Viren Shetty, ED & Group COO at Narayana Health, said at present their COVID occupancies were barely anything and vaccinations continued as normal. In case of any eventuality, he said the infrastructure has been set up.

“We bought all the ventilators, we set apart all the COVID ICUs and should be in a position to take care of them. Right now, vaccinations continue as normal COVID occupancies are barely anything,” said Shetty.

He added that COVID is a concern in the sense that it has not been fully eliminated from the country. “But I would echo what all the other hospital groups are saying that patients are not really coming to the hospital. Those that come, come very early and they do get treated. Now, we know a lot more about how to treat these patients than we did before,” he said.

The overall COVID numbers, however, still remain stubbornly high. “We do not know if it would manifest itself in some kind of exponential growth curve and a wave shows up at some point in October, November,” Shetty said, adding that it was beyond the realm of their ability to plan for but they are prepared.

On Capex plans, he said, since COVID, it has taken a bit of a hold and there is a more modest plan. “We have around Rs 250 crore planned for this one year, but it will scale up. The fact is that a lot of our hospitals are in need of refurbishment, a lot of equipment to be upgraded, and a lot of capacity to be added in new specialties, specifically oncology,” he said.

The pandemic has taught that all hospitals are very short of critical care infrastructure and so over the next five years, Narayana group has an aggressive Capex plan on upgrading their existing infrastructure to be able to accommodate all kinds of critical care patients.

“We won’t look to add too much new bed capacity, we have sufficient headway within the existing infrastructure and there are about 50-100 beds that can be added, just to account for the differences in the allocation of how we count the beds,” he added.

For the entire interview, watch the accompanying video

Elon Musk forms several ‘X Holdings’ companies to fund potential Twitter buyout

3 Mins Read

Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

Hospitals in Delhi close to break-even level; Mumbai likely in FY23: Narayana Health

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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Viren Shetty, ED & Group COO of Narayana Health, on Monday said hospitals in Delhi are close to break-even level. A chain of multi-speciality hospitals reported better than an estimated set of earnings for the June-ended quarter. There is a marginal quarter-on-quarter (QoQ) revenue and profit growth but the margin has seen a slight slip.

“The hospitals in Delhi are more or less at the break-even level. The hospital we have in east Delhi has been breaking even consistently for the past couple of quarters. The hospital in Gurugram hovers thereabouts and is hovering at the breakeven level. Our hospital in Mumbai being a children-only hospital and children not being as impacted by COVID still has ways to go. The breakeven time which would have been in this financial year will probably get pushed out to the next,” Shetty said.

On non-COVID trends, Shetty said the company has seen recovery since June as COVID numbers have been declining. “It has been replaced by people coming in for electro procedure, mostly domestically; international travel hasn’t picked up barring a few cases like transplant surgeries,” he said.

Shetty added that there has been a significant pickup in July and the August trend seems healthy. A cause of worry is COVID patients coming to the hospitals in Bengaluru and Kolkata, which is not the case in Delhi or Mumbai as of now, Shetty said adding the situation can change in case of the third wave of COVID-19.

Elon Musk forms several ‘X Holdings’ companies to fund potential Twitter buyout

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Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

Narayana Health’s Viren Shetty expects third wave to be less severe than second wave

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

Listen to the Article (6 Minutes)

Narayana Health posted Q4FY21 earnings. The company has clocked in a record-high profit, and margins have improved significantly to 17 percent. However, the management commentary remains quite cautious on near-term recovery. Viren Shetty, Executive Director and Group COO, Narayana Health, discussed the performance.

“We are working with a large number of corporates, buying huge numbers of ventilators and oxygen generators, while maintaining a huge stock of medicines and PPEs to prepare for any eventuality,” he said.

“We were still in the process of procuring a large number of ventilators and oxygen generators when the second wave of COVID-19 hit us. So now, we are not taking any chances,” he shared.

Shetty further opined, “All signs indicate that the third wave may not be as bad as the second wave, but so far COVID has continued to surprise us. Since the third wave is expected to impact children more, we are buying a lot of ventilators that have a paediatric setting to be able to treat both adults and children alike.”

In terms of capping of COVID rates, he said, “If you look at capping the rates as a philosophy, then it has very disturbing ramifications. If one person does it, it would get the sense that all the state governments may take this up. If the rates for everyone are capped, rich patients are paying less, poor patients are paying more and that is absolutely not a fair situation.”

In rural Karnataka, the hospitals are dealing with a huge number of COVID patients, it may still take a couple of more weeks for it to normalise, he mentioned.

“In West Bengal, the numbers are starting to fall. There are barely any new patients coming to us with COVID, and we are able to cure the existing patients too. June looks to be quite a positive month for us, but still very much a month in recovery. It is only from Q2 that we will start to see what non-COVID numbers start to look like,” he shared.

For the full interview, watch the accompanying video.

Elon Musk forms several ‘X Holdings’ companies to fund potential Twitter buyout

3 Mins Read

Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

Cases increasing sharply in Karnataka’s rural areas: Narayana Health

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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Feedback from hospitals suggests that there is some stabilisation in COVID occupancies in big cities such as Bengaluru and Mumbai, but occupancies in private hospitals have surged in some of the smaller towns.

Viren Shetty, Executive Director and Group COO of Narayana Health said, “We are not getting this constant rush of people that are waiting outside the emergency departments. It is pretty stable and we have maybe a couple of beds free in the normal COVID wards. But our ICUs continue to be full and there is still a tremendous demand. In Bengaluru very much still our ICUs are full and we have a lot of trouble in meeting new cases.”

On the surge in COVID cases in Karnataka, he said, “What is worrisome is that in small towns, and we have a lot of hospitals in small towns across Karnataka, cases are ramping up by a lot. The problem with smaller towns is that the healthcare infrastructure doesn’t start at the good baseline as it is there are very few places and it was fine because the population is very less.”

“In hospital-like myself for example where we had seen only 10-20 cases a day now we are seeing 60-70 cases a day. So it is a little worry that it has spread so fast in rural India in a kind of velocity that we had not seen the last time around,” he explained further.

For the full interview, watch the accompanying video.

Elon Musk forms several ‘X Holdings’ companies to fund potential Twitter buyout

3 Mins Read

Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

COVID-19 adding to existing under-supply stress on healthcare system: Narayana Health

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

Listen to the Article (6 Minutes)

As the second wave of COVID-19 cases in India sees a sharp surge with daily cases hitting 2 lakh per day for the first time, the medical fraternity is dealing with increasing pressure by the day.

The exponentially rising demand for beds due to COVID has seen patients scrambling for beds while medical facilities are complaining of oxygen and Remdesivir shortage.

To understand the situation on the ground, CNBC-TV18 spoke to Viren Shetty, Executive Director and Group COO of Narayana Health.

Shetty said, “Just to put in context, even before COVID there never really was a time in India when we had enough beds to satisfy the demand. Now obviously, you are adding pressure to an already overburdened and undersupply system. So yes, it is difficult also considering the fact that most hospitals are dealing with a normal workload which is a huge number of patients with cancer, cardiac problems, kidney disease, dialysis – all those patients still have to be treated and those numbers have not gone down.”

“We have this double whammy where we have to take care of patients who are much sicker as well as you have this burden of patients who may or may not require hospitalisation but because they are sick and they wanted to be treated will get treated in large hospitals and that is leading to this overburdening what you are seeing,” he elaborated.

Talking about COVID patients Shetty said, “Now a lot more people are wanting to get admitted with high-grade fever and they are displaying the same symptoms as they did last year. I would say the one saving grace is that they are not coming into the hospital as sick as they did last time around, whereas last year patients came in and would expire within 24-48 hours of getting into the hospital.”

“We are not able to keep up with the demand obviously because it is way worse this time around but we are doing the best that we can and treating as many patients as is possible,” he added.

Watch the accompanying video for more.

Elon Musk forms several ‘X Holdings’ companies to fund potential Twitter buyout

3 Mins Read

Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow