‘Venture Capital in Healthcare is Growing’

Coimbatore, August 13, 2014 – The Indian healthcare services sector is booming with corporate hospitals expanding their network to tier II-III cities and the sector also is increasingly attracting Venture Capital investments, according to a senior executive of Siemens, which has a significant exposure to this sector.

Responding to questions from BusinessLine, Richard Guest, Country Lead, Siemens Healthcare, India, said the size of the Indian healthcare imaging market was around Rs.20 billion and it was growing in double digits.

Segment dominance

He expected the private healthcare providers to continue to dominate this segment.

The improved penetration of healthcare insurance and growing awareness about preventive health check-ups have also greatly helped, according to him. He said his company was the ‘only integrated diagnostic company’ that offered in-vitro and in-vivo diagnosis which he believes gave it an edge in the healthcare market.

Asked about the foray of Indian healthcare providers to overseas destinations, Guest said this was an encouraging trend and it served as an “evidence of the maturity of healthcare technology installations in India-based hospitals.”

He said there were emerging markets outside the country like sub-Saharan Africa, Bangladesh, etc.

First installation

Siemens had installed in Coimbatore’s PSG Hospital the SOMATOM Definition Edge CT Scanner with Stellar detector technology which happened to be the first installation in Asia, he said.

Stellar detector technology is a safe scanner for children and infants.

G Bakthavathsalam, Chairman, KG Hospital, Coimbatore, said Siemen’s wireless Acuson Freestyle Ultrasound system could be kept at a distance of 12 feet by the doctor in sterile condition.

The machine was helpful in the operation theatres for operating on the brain, liver and also in the interventional and pain relieving departments. In the six months ended March 2014 (Siemens follows October-September financial year format) the contribution of healthcare business to Siemens’ turnover increased to RS.651.10 crore compared to Rs.513.11 crore in the same period in the previous fiscal.