ET Q&AIndia’s early response to the Covid-19 outbreak has helped the country manage the crisis well, said Suneeta Reddy, managing director of Apollo Hospitals. In an interview with ET’s Teena Thacker, she shares her view on the way forward till an approved vaccine is available, and the hospital chain’s expansion plan. Edited excerpts: What do you think about the country’s preparedness to combat Covid-19?India acted early on and has managed the crisis well. We have made remarkable progress in containing the spread, preparing infrastructure and in augmenting capacity in testing, kits, PPEs, ventilators, etc. We also now understand the disease better, and are able to treat it more effectively. What’s the way forward till a vaccine is ready? The pillars of prevention are three simple interventions – social distancing, wearing masks and hand washing. These must be followed at all times; Covid-19 is here to stay for a while. On the vaccine front, thousands of scientists are working on more than 150 vaccines. Even after the use of vaccination, the most likely scenario is that the virus will continue to survive. Even if the virus is somehow eliminated, it could keep circulating among zoonotic reservoirs and might spread among humans again. Over time, SARS-CoV-2 might become just another seasonal respiratory virus. Private hospitals have come under scrutiny for allegedly overcharging for Covid-19 treatment. What do you have to say?It is not appropriate to paint all hospitals with the same brush basis one or two reports or invoices. As an industry, the private health sector rose to the occasion when the pandemic hit, and has been an able partner of the government in fighting the disease. It has to be said that when the treatment protocol for the disease is not certain and each person needs personalised care based on co-morbidities, to expect uniformity in the bill is not the right thing to do. We are clear that we will do our best for each patient — I don’t want the doctors to think about the costs of the treatment. I want doctors to be delivering the best treatment to the patient. It is time the country acknowledged that quality healthcare comes at a cost. And this cost is not high compared with global benchmarks. Hospitals have seen a drop in revenue due to low footfalls and pause in elective surgeries. When do you think things will normalise? The lockdown caused some disruptions in outpatient and inpatient footfalls. We are seeing the numbers come back up in Q2. We believe that once travel and transport begin to normalise, business will get back to pre-Covid levels. However, we do recognise that the pandemic is here to stay, and we have made arrangements in all our hospitals for the safe treatment of Covid-19 alongside other patients. What about the post lockdown plans? Our plans remain intact – our focus will be on strengthening our margin profile through higher operating leverage in our mature hospitals, and on ramping up occupancy, revenue and EBITDA in our new hospitals. Our SAP business is on a healthy growth trajectory, uninterrupted even with Covid and we expect the vertical’s performance to continue. AHLL, our retail brand, which had got into positive EBITDA trajectory pre-Covid, will also focus on delivering high double-digit growth, and resume its position as an EBITDA-positive vertical. Private hospitals have not got any relief from the government. What’s your view?It certainly would have been helpful to receive some support from the government, for e.g. zero-rating GST that we have been seeking for a long time. However, while we have not been given relief, our ask is that there should be no further regulatory moves that will disturb the economics of the sector. We have now started engaging with industry associations and government departments on next year’s budget, where we hope healthcare as a sector will get the priority and attention it deserves. Do you plan to expand beyond the typical metros in the near future? While we have come to the end of our expansion cycle, we do remain open to the idea of bolt-on acquisitions at reasonable valuations in geographies where we feel there is healthy and under-served demand. Recently, we made one such acquisition in Lucknow, which was an attractive market with good local partners. We will evaluate these opportunities on a case-to-case basis. How do you see the year closing for you? FY21has certainly been a challenging year and will continue to be in the next few months. However, we believe we are well-positioned with four distinct verticals — hospitals, retail pharmacies, digital healthcare and retail healthcare, each of which has a clear trajectory for growth. With this construct, we are moving ahead into creating the hospital of the future, with strong cash flows to support future growth.
from Economic Times https://ift.tt/2G2t60r
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