Uphill Struggle
Business India|December 19, 2016

HCG finds it tough to stay ahead and make an adequate profit.

Sumit Goshal
Uphill Struggle

Cancer care and treatment is an expensive business, both for patients and their families, as well as hospitals that seek to offer it. With almost 1.1 million people in the country diagnosed with the disease each year, and a sizeable proportion of them surviving longer than before, the demand for cancer care is increasing rapidly. No surprise then, that every major hospital worth its name has a department for treatment of cancer.

At the frontier of the battle against cancer is healthcare global enterprises (HCG), with its 17 cancer centres in different parts of the country, and two multi-specialty centres. Between these centres, they have 1,257 hospital beds, 21 linear accelerators (used for administering radiation therapy to cancer patients) and state-of-the-art pet/cts scanner at 12 of their facilities.

But, with so many other hospital organisations offering some form of cancer care, HCG obviously finds it tough, not only to stay ahead from a technological standpoint, but also to make an adequate profit. That could explain why between January and June 2016, the HCG network was able to attract just 37,315 new patients and had administered radiation therapy to a modest 12,200 patients (some of whom might have been diagnosed with cancer the previous year).

“We have several firsts to our credit, with regard to our equipment and methods of treatment,” says B.S.. Ajaikumar, chairman & MD, HCG, and a renowned cancer specialist in his own right. One example is the latest tomotherapy h series equipment installed in one of its hospitals earlier this year. While tata memorial hospital, the oldest and arguably the best known cancer hospital in India, has a tomotherapy machine dating back to February 2007, HCG has the latest version.

This story is from the December 19, 2016 edition of Business India.

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This story is from the December 19, 2016 edition of Business India.

Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 8,500+ magazines and newspapers.