Content on this page requires a newer version of Adobe Flash Player.

Get Adobe Flash player


Sri Lanka Apollo Hospital eyes medical tourism, cosmetic surgery markets

LBO - June 5, 2008

The Lanka Hospitals Corporation, which own's Colombo's Apollo Hospital, said it is targeting medical tourism in a big way, along with cosmetic surgery, and hopes to turn profitable in the next financial year.

The hospital, whose ownership changed in October 2006 with tycoon Harry Jayewardena buying a controlling stake, said a rights issue of shares helped settle debt and reduce interest costs.

"We're very confident of turning around this establishment," its chief executive Lakith Peiris said.

"The hospital is now operating at full capacity with the number of surgeries, procedures, investigations and out-patients increasing. Definitely by the 2008/09 financial year we're very confident of making profits."

The firm's chairman Ajit Jayaratne said the hospital had been making losses but interest costs had been reduced after the rights issue.

"The one billion rupee rights issue was used to settle all our debts. So we have been able to reduce interest charges considerably," he told a news conference Wednesday.

Peiris said the hospital has treated about 1,000 foreign patients, mostly Maldivians and that it wanted to encourage medical tourism.

"We want to sign up with foreign institutions and get medical patients from the UK, and also get patients from other parts of Europe, the Maldives and Korea."

The company hopes to sign a deal with Britain's National Health Service soon.

"In heart surgery, we've already done a lot of work to mobilize patients in the UK because it is cheaper to do heart surgery in Sri Lanka," Peiris said.

"A highly successful medical area is cosmetic surgery. We see a lot of females coming from different parts of the world coming to Apollo for cosmetic surgery – we have good plastic surgeons."

Peiris said they hope to commission the whole hospital in 2009 and raise bed capacity to 325 from almost 200 today. The hospital also hopes to start a fertility clinic in August and upgrade its renal science department which has done 60 kidney transplants in the past year.

< Back to Media Centre

 

Press Releases