Max, Singapore Hospital in alliance

Max Healthcare, on Monday, entered into an agreement with Singapore General Hospital, an arm of SingHealth Hospitals, for a medical collaboration.

The agreement entails exchange of medical professionals for research, medical education, information, best practices and other healthcare services.

The memorandum of understanding was signed between Analjit Singh, chairman of Max Healthcare, and Tan Ser Kiat, Group CEO, SingHealth, at a Confederation of Indian Industry meeting in New Delhi on Monday.

"Max Healthcare and SGH will also have fellowship programmes and special training on rehabilitation, trauma and other services like patient billing, OT management and other supervisory services needed for super-speciality hospitals. The exchange system will be fee based," Singh said.

The agreement will also focus on research and development of medicines for Asia-centric diseases. "We are planning to set up R&D division for diseases specific to the Asian countries like SARS and Bird Flu. We will also be focusing on the health profile of Asians to design treatments accordingly," Kia said.

SingHealth could also look at investing in Max Healthcare if the MoU is executed successfully. "We are open to forming joint ventures with Max Healthcare after we understand the Indian market profile," Kiat added.

Meanwhile, Max Healthcare is on an expansion spree in the National Capital Region with an investment of Rs 425 crore (Rs 4.25 billion) during 2004-05. It will set up six hospitals in the NCR.

"We will invest Rs 425 crore for the construction of six hospitals in the NCR which is our focus area. We feel there are lot of patients for us to cater in the NCR region," Singh said.

Five of the six hospitals would be functional this year and another one in Gurgaon would be ready around this time next year, he added.

The company also plans to set up around 18 primary healthcare clinics in the NCR during the period.