Hyderabad: Apollo Hospitals on Saturday announced its foray into the homecare segment with the launch of Apollo Homecare, a separate division in the group.

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The largest private hospital chain in the country rolled out its homecare services in Hyderabad, Chennai and Delhi.

Apollo Group chairman Prathap Reddy told reporters that the operations will be extended to Bengaluru, Kolkata and Ahmedabad by end of this year and to 13 tier-2 cities next year. It has set a target of touching one lakh lives in the first year of operations.

The division, which has recruited 500 people, has so far invested Rs.20 crore and plans to invest Rs.30 crore more for a pan India presence by the end of next year.

Prathap Reddy said with an experience of over three decades and presence in 40 locations across the country, Apollo was ideally positioned to offer homecare services.

Apollo Homecare will offer over 100 services to people in three categories -- home visit, home partnership and home nursing. The services are specially designed for the elderly, chronically ill, post-surgery recovery patients, post hospital discharge care and home specialty care.

He promised that the cost will be reasonable. According to company officials, Rs.2,000 to Rs.3,600 per day will be charged for home nursing. Prathap Reddy also launched the logo and website of the new division and also distributed homecare kits among the staff.

He believes that home based quality healthcare will play a significant role in the healthcare industry in the country in this decade. He said it would be win-win for all stakeholders. 

For patients and their families it will be convenient and comfortable, for hospitals it will reduce the average length of stay of patients while the outgo on health insurance companies will get reduced

Mahesh Joshi, CEO, Apollo Homecare, said there was dearth of serious providers, who can cater to the clinical excellence at home in India. The company will be supported by four centres of excellence - homecare management, homecare hub, homecare clinical excellence and homecare learning centre.

Apollo Homecare will largely focus on short term and long term home based care, which will be physician and nurse led, it will also be handling home based investigations, home vaccination programs and medicines delivery.

It will also leverage Apollo group network of hospitals, retail pharmacy, clinics and diagnostic services along with the backup of its emergency 1066 services.