Apollo to commission whole hospital next year

by Surekha Galagoda

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Apollo Hospitals Colombo (The Lanka Hospitals Corporation) will commission the whole hospital next year, said its Chairman Ajit Jayaratne.

Addressing a press conference held to celebrate the sixth anniversary which fell yesterday, he said that at present they are operating at a 200 bed capacity but once the full hospital is commissioned they will operate at 350 bed capacity.

Jayaratne said that they were confident of turning around the hospital to profitability in the next financial year as they had already settled the major part of the debts with the funds from the Rights Issue.

CEO Lakith Peiris dismissing the myth that the Apollo Hospital charges exhorbitant prices said that the prices are competitive compared to other hospitals in Sri Lanka and inpatient facilities start from Rs. 1,500 per day which is inclusive of meals, aircondition, television and telephone.

They have a mix of Sri Lankan and overseas consultants who are the best in their respective fields.

Speaking about their CSR projects, he said that they together with Lanka Bell have started doing heart surgery for children whose parents can't afford the cost.

Managing Director Lanka Bell, Prasad Samarasinghe said that the company together with the staff bears some of the costs while the balance is borne by the hospital. He said about eight babies have already undergone surgery while they had approved another two surgeries on Wednesday.

Peiris said that the Department of Renal Science and the fertility centre will be converted to centres of excellence as a part of the sixth anniversary.

He said that they have already treated over 1,000 international patients, most of them Maldivians. The hospital is planning to sign an agreement with NHS UK to mobilise patients from UK while they are planning to sign up with institutions in the Maldives and Korea as well to mobilise patients from these countries too.

Peiris said that they are highly successful in the area of cosmetic surgery and many patients from overseas come to the hospital for this purpose.

Established in June 2002, the ownership of the hospital changed in October 2006 making Apollo a fully Sri Lankan owned entity. Over the last six years the hospital has served over one million customers.

The four digit emergency number 1566 is answered by a doctor or a paramedic and is operational 24 hours of the day, 365 days of the year.