Tag: Narayana Health

Started getting a lot of primary business during lockdown: Narayana Health

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

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Narayana Health’s subsidiary plans to come up with a new 50-bed facility in Cayman Islands with an estimated investment of $100 million. To talk about this – Viren Shetty, Executive Director and Group COO at Narayana Health, spoke to CNBC-TV18.

On investment, Shetty said, “Of all the hospitals groups in India, we are coming into the pandemic with the lowest amount of leverage. The other thing is half of our debt is dollar-denominated and we generate a healthy cash flow from the Cayman Islands so we feel quite confident to sustain that borrowing.”

He added, “More than our ability to borrow, our ability to expand is constrained by the fact that the valuations are quite stretched of the places we are looking at and there are very few assets that we have finalised on.”

On Cayman Islands, he said, “The Cayman Hospital was on a very healthy run rate and was very profitable before the pandemic. What happened is we had this slight dip during the early days of the lockdown when we had to close our hospital operations because of infection, but once we re-opened we started to attract a new kind of business that historically never came to us which was a lot of primary care, a lot of secondary care, a lot of outpatient investigations and so on that historically would go to either provider on the islands.”

On break even for new business, he said, “Break even for our initial hospital took quite a while, and that is because we had to reverse a lot of trends. New business should come up in a much more constrained time because we are investing in a whole hospital, this is more of an add-on facility.”

For full management commentary, watch the video.

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

Expect Q4 to be a normal quarter, says Narayana Health’s Viren Shetty

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

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Narayana Health reported its Q3FY21 earnings. While revenue declined year-on-year (YoY), there has been a recovery in operations sequentially. Viren Shetty, executive director and Group COO, Narayana Health, discussed the numbers as well as shared his outlook on the business, going forward.

“As of December, all the hospitals in India have staged more or less a full recovery. COVID still remains anywhere from 5 percent to 8 percent of the revenue in December, that is a much declining trend. In fact, several of our hospitals don’t have any COVID patients in there at all,” he said.

“The domestic business has staged a strong recovery. International volumes are still struggling and we expect they will continue to be a problem because of the non-availability of flights and people’s reluctance to travel for healthcare. So we expect that Q4 may be the one normal quarter that we may have,” he said.

“Cardiac surgery, cardiology, orthopedics – that have a huge amount of the elective component – aren’t yet at 100 percent of where they were. They are closer to around 60-80 percent,” Shetty said.

He doesn’t expect the international business to recover anytime soon. “We are not anticipating that to recover anytime soon but it has been picked up a lot. Our outpatients are still quite low compared to where they were in normal times. It is still somewhere between 60-70 percent of where they are,” he said.

In terms of digital consultations, he said, “The peak of our digital consultation volumes was during the lockdown. Right now in a quarter, we do around 30,000 digital consultations. It is more of a supplement.”

For more, 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

Narayana Health welcomes Delhi reducing ICU bed reservations to 25%

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

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The Delhi government has reduced intensive care unit (ICU) bed reservation to 25 percent for COVID-19 patients in private hospitals. Viren Shetty, Executive Director and Group COO of Narayana Health discussed this and more.

“From what used to be 50 percent is right now down to 25 percent and for hospitals that are less than 100 beds. They don’t need to reserve any beds for COVID-19 at all. This is a reflection on the fact that hospitals aren’t seeing that many COVID-19 patients. This is a very positive trend for us and we hope that this continues. COVID-19 is not a very big business for us,” he said.

Business is back to pre COVID-19 levels for most of the Narayana Health hospitals. “The run rate looks quite positive, barring any unforeseen circumstances or any new strain we do believe that the worst of COVID -19 is behind us,” he said.

“Our hospitals are running full right now. There are many more diseases in the country outside of COVID-19, a huge amount of heart diseases, oncology and so on and with the permission of the government, we have not kept those beds empty. They will be available should the need arise but in the meantime as long as the footfalls are there, we have to use it for the patients that are filling up our emergency rooms right now,” Shetty mentioned.

In terms of COVID-19 vaccination, he said, “This is something that should get complete by this week or early next week at most. We have seen some amount of resistance, not to getting vaccinated itself. We have certain senior doctors who believe that they can wait because they want to prioritise their colleagues, there are other doctors who have been infected prior and want to wait until the antibody resistance comes down and then get vaccinated. So it is not that our doctors or nurses do not want to get vaccinated, they just want to wait for it and put other people further ahead in the line.”

On the vaccine rollout, he said, “we have been speaking with as many people as we can to for the government to allow us to start procuring vaccines in large quantities direct from the manufacturer. We are in discussion with the Serum Institute and as and when the government gives the go-ahead, we will be placing the orders for millions of vials of vaccines that we want to start rolling out across the country.”

For full interview, watch the video.

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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

Elective surgeries now at 80% of pre-COVID levels: Fortis Healthcare

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

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The healthcare services sector is in focus after a recent HSBC note maintaining its positive view, saying the recovery would continue.

Ashutosh Raghuvanshi, MD & CEO, Fortis Healthcare and Viren Shetty, Executive Director and Group COO, Narayana Health spoke to CNBC-TV18 on recent trends.

On occupancy, Raghuvanshi said, “Q2 saw a very healthy performance where the occupancy levels went up to about 57 percent. We see the trend of recovery going on through the month of October as well where the occupancy rates overall were about 65 percent in most of our hospitals. We are seeing the gradual recovery in the non-COVID work across the regions of the country.”

Shetty said, “COVID occupancy across our hospitals hover between 10-15 percent, occupancy has dipped quite a bit with an exception of a hospitals in Delhi.”

On elective surgeries he said, “During the peak of the pandemic lot of the people were not opting to get surgeries done and were postponing specifically around the cardiac. With time and as cases continue to decline and hopes of a vaccine coming here we expect the normalcy to resume within the first quarter of next year.”

On cost savings Raghuvanshi said, “Lot of emergency measures were taken for cost containment. My expectation is about 90 percent of the cost saving which we did in the first quarter would come back however 10 percent is likely to stay. Lot of structural changes have been made in the organisational structure and many other activities such as marketing and sales activity, we are moving to more of a digital channel etc. So many of these measures will remain sustained and I would expect that 5-10 percent of cost saving should be sustainable.”

“Currently we are at about 80 percent of the pre-COVID levels as far as elective work is concerned so that is still short by 20 percent and I think 10 percent of our volumes came from international patients so that volume is totally depleted at the same time in country also there are patients who travel from one region to other that part also is significantly affected. So we still see bout a 20 percent lag in the elective work.”

To know more, watch this 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

Infosys Foundation partners with Narayana Health City to open 100-bed quarantine facility for COVID-19 patients

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

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Infosys Foundation, the philanthropic and CSR arm of Infosys and Narayana Health, one of the largest healthcare provider in the country, launched a 100-room quarantine facility for COVID patients in the vicinity of Narayana health city in Bengaluru, Karnataka. Infosys will be the first Indian IT company to assist in setting up quarantine facilities.

The company has said that the facility will aim to serve patients belonging to the economically weaker sections of the society and will accommodate patients, provide regular monitoring by doctors, nurses, and essential medication free of cost.

Mrs. Sudha Murty, Chairperson, Infosys Foundation, said, “Diseases often hit the underprivileged the hardest, because not only can they not afford proper treatment, but they also lose livelihood when they are dealing with the illness. This is a small effort by the Foundation to ensure that the underserved people of our society get access to clean, hygienic accommodation as well as appropriate medical treatment. We are thankful to Narayana Health City for their partnership and the thoughtfulness of this initiative.”

Infosys has also offered to partner with the Indian government to help set up a medical facility to address the healthcare needs of citizens affected by coronavirus. In US, Infosys Foundation has open up its learning platform for teachers, so they can continue to school their students from home.

The patients in the isolation facility will be monitored by the doctors and nurses of Narayana Health City. This partnership is another step in the Foundation’s efforts to expand hospital and quarantine facilities and ensure proper medical treatment for the patients belonging to the economically weaker sections of the society.

Earlier this week, Infosys Foundation announced its commitment of INR 100 crore to help the government with COVID-19 relief efforts. Dr. Devi Shetty, Chairman, Narayana Health, said, “We are pleased to partner with Infosys Foundation to open this 100-room quarantine facility for underprivileged patients. Providing safe-spaces, with proper medical care to enable patients to isolate themselves, will play a big role in India’s fight against COVID-19, and we thank Infosys Foundation for their support in this endeavor.”

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

COVID-19: Government doing all it can but civil society not responding the way it should, says Dr Shetty of Narayana Health

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

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One of India’s top most cardiac surgeons, Doctor Devi Shetty has said that the way people are out on the streets a day after the Janata Curfew is disappointing.

In an exclusive conversation with CNBC-TV18’s Shereen Bhan, the founder of Narayana Health added that while the government was doing whatever it could, the society wasn’t responding the way it should. Highlighting the enormity of the crisis India was staring at, doctor Shetty warned that Karnataka alone was likely to have a minimum of 80,000 COVID-19 cases.

“First of all, government is doing whatever they can, but the civil society is not responding the way they should. It is a great disappointment for all of us especially the medical community because in the end they are all going to lean on us to save their life. Yesterday, the total Bandh was very successful. There was nobody on the street, today there is celebration, and you got shopping going on in commercial areas of Bangalore, life is back to normal. Even though government has suspended public transport, closed all the shops, schools, people have lot of time now and they are enjoying and this will put us in a serious trouble,” he warned.

“I have done some calculations and Karnataka state alone will have minimum of 80,000 positive patients. At least 15,000-20,000 patients will require hospitalisation and at least 2,500 patients will require ICU care and at least 1,000 patients will need ventilatory support for breathing. Believe me it is a phenomenal number and it will not take one-two months to surface. In Italy, from 300 patients to 10,000 patients it increased in two weeks. All the hospitals will be clogged, there will be patients waiting on the corridor and on the street, there will not be beds, there will not be ventilators. It is not because government hasn’t done the job. They are doing everything possible. But people are not responding. There is no question of social distancing, nobody is staying at home, and everybody is out there celebrating,” said the disappointed doctor.

When asked how prepared we were from a healthcare infrastructure perspective he said, “Karnataka is an exception mainly because the government here has been constantly interacting with the private sector for more than a month and lot of preparations are done and now they are giving away over 1,600-1,700 beds in one or two complexes only for the ICU. They are listening to the advice of the professionals and they are doing everything possible.” However, there are natural bottlenecks. We have only one company which can make ventilators and every state is short of ventilators for the number that we are anticipating, he added.

Unfortunately, I have been talking to the companies, till date they haven’t received a firm order from most of the governments and even if they have the firm orders it will take them while to prepare, he said, adding that a lot of the states are way behind what needs to be done, but they can buck up, because the kind of volume we are talking about even if they have all the infrastructure, it will be very difficult to cope.

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

There is a legitimate need to expand testing of COVID-19, says Biocon’s Kiran Mazumdar Shaw

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

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With the coronavirus now spreading at an alarming rate, accredited private labs would be allowed to test for Covid-19. However, this has raised several questions regarding costs, sanitation, hygiene etc.

Kiran Mazumdar Shaw, chairperson and managing director of Biocon; Viren Shetty, ED & group COO of Narayana Health and Naresh Trehan, CMD of Medanta in an interaction with CNBC-TV18 tried to clear some of the doubts.

Mazumdar Shaw said, “There is a legitimate need for expanding capacity of testing, which the government clearly recognises now. There is concern that if we don’t have some controls, things could run amok because there will be attempts to profiteer under this situation of panic. I also believe that we need to be very judicious about who is tested. I don’t think there is any need for everybody to be tested. So, from that point of view I think there is justification in what the government is concerned about. Having said that, I do believe that the private sector has to be a partner in this whole battle against this invisible enemy as it is often referred to.”

She further added, “We do have a large number of labs in the private sector which can test the Coronavirus and we need to put in place the capacity. Now as far as whether it is free or not, the understanding was if the government supplies the private sector with kits there is a possibility that some of the labs might be able to waive off their service charges and just do the test for free. By and large I think this whole question on whether free or not can be solved by maximum retail price (MRP) and also controlling it through prescription based diagnostic.”

“So peace can be the way forward. Government is willing to listen to whatever model the private sector comes up with,” she said.

Trehan said, “Most definitely we need to test wider and if the need be that the private labs need to be recruited – then definitely they should be. You can fix a price. If you do the exact costing of what it will take for the labs to collect the samples – one of the dangers that I have heard from the private labs is that if a large number of people are suspected to be Coronavirus, descent on their labs then they don’t have the capacity to deal with them. So the proposal is that they should pick up the samples from home in a viral transport medium, do the test and deliver the results. The real cost can be easily calculated. There are enough labs in this country who have the PCR and all the capabilities.”

He further added, “If we are all on the same platform, we have the same rules of the game the same cost price – I would go a little further – there are some people who will not be able to afford and who need it so every lab can volunteer 10 percent of the test or x number of test to do free, so that will help the people who are unable to afford it. So this is a time for us to put our heads together and in our CSR, we should be able to help or assist the people and the government in achieving the objective of trying to contain it.”

When asked how to prevent profiteering in such situation Shetty said, “In terms of profiteering at the time of panic there is nothing you can do to prevent that, but the fact is government has all the ability to fix the prices of the test and the other one is we are a free market. If you allow every private lab to do the test, some labs will decide they are five star labs, they will charge more for it, some labs will decide we will charge it at the budget and for those who can’t afford it they can go to the government labs anyway for the past two months the government labs have been doing it for free. The problem is we are very under testing our population, we are doing only 5 test per million people so we have to take a more aggressive response to this because this is a very aggressive disease.”

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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