A mall to showcase healthcare

Kochi is likely to emerge an international healthcare hub, if the responses to BCG Healthsquare, a 1.10 lakh sq.ft health mall, a novel attempt, of its kind.

Much like shopping mall offering retail space, a health mall offers the common infrastructure for health care providers to set up practice. This addresses the problem of high land cost and lack of space in cities for doctors to set up exclusive clinics.

Ms Rekha C.Babu, CEO, said that quality healthcare facilities under one roof are more in need. Earlier, individual houses were common, doctors could set up a clinic in the premises. With rapid urbanisation and apartment life, it is becoming difficult for them to set up independent practices.

The Rs 50-crore BCG Healthsquare is all about convenient location and services offered. From a patient's perspective, since all the facilities such as diagnostics, pathology and pharmacy are available in the same building; they don't have to go from one place to another looking for these services.

BCG itself will be setting up two more such health malls within three years, in Kozhikode and Thiruvananthapuram.

Kerala being a small state, with high density of population, land prices have always been high as compared with other states. This is one of the reasons, why major service providers in the health care sector have not been able to tap the market.

In order to address the issue of high investment cost, multiple rental and lease options are offered to doctors and other medical services setting up shops in the health mall. There are also hourly options for the doctors who would like to take the space for shorter periods. All these are unique concepts compared with the working of doctors in a hospital.

“We are getting enquiries even from doctors practising abroad particularly those in the Gulf nations - who intend to open consultation camps in Kochi”, says Ms Renu C Babu, the civil engineer-turned Managing Director of the Rs 500-crore asset based BCG Group.

The health mall concept comes at a time when the state's healthcare landscape is slowly shifting from conventional, basic hospitals to more cosy locations. And as the concept of care changes, ‘so does the need to take better care of ourselves', says Ms Renu. At BCG Health Square “we are here, with literally every healthcare product and service.

The Health Square also brings together leading diagnostic centres, scan units, health food chains, pharmacies, optical products, skin care products, etc together', says Ms Renu.

It also houses pharmacies, labs, health and medical equipment and a dialysis centre.

One entire floor in the facility is earmarked to accommodate allied medical services where medical colleges, hospitals, ayurvedic centres and medical insurance companies can set up centres for public information. Even other hospitals can open up a kiosk here, to inform the general public about the facilities and services available in their respective hospitals.

Live consultation rooms, run directly by super specialty doctors make up the unique strength of BCG Health Square.There are 44 specifically designed investigation rooms for each super specialty - in the sixth and seventh floors and private clinics in eighth, ninth and 10th floors- will take care of routine healthcare needs.

With the option of utilising centralised services such as patient management desk, secretarial assistance, call monitoring and billing, this facility also “makes it easier for doctors to set up their independent clinics.” “We ensure only restricted number of doctors per specialty”, she said.

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