British NHS-led consortium to invest Rs 10,000 crore in 11 hospitals

Mumbai: Indo-UK Healthcare, a consortium of Indo-British promoters, has committed to invest over Rs 10,000 crore to bring the famed NHS Hospitals of England, apart from other leading English educational institutions and universities into the country over the next few years.

The initiative is supported by Healthcare UK, a joint initiative of the British department of health, UK Trade and Investment and the National Health Service (NHS) England.

Under the agreement signed in the presence of visiting Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his host David Cameron, the first hospital, King's College Hospital, England will come up in New Chandigarh at an investment of 100 million pounds or Rs 1,000 crore, a statement from Indo-UK Healthcare said. However, it did not say when the first hospital will become functional.

"Each of the 11 Indo-UK Institutes of Health will entail a foreign direct investment of around Rs 1,000 crore across 11 states and will include multispecialty NHS-branded hospital for healthcare delivery, clinical support services, NHS e-health, staff accommodation, a medical college, a nursing college, R&D facilities, medical manufacturing facilities and a medical mall," the statement added.

The project, once completed, will employ 5,000 doctors and 25,000 nurses, allied health specialists for the 11,000 beds. The project has the potential of creating upwards of 1,00,000 jobs.

The medical and nursing colleges will train 15,000 new MBBS doctors and 20,000 nurses, it added. Funds for the project will be raised through a combination of debt and equity from a consortium of banks, including UK Export Finance and leading private equity players including Elara Capital. Elara Capital shall be acting as sole advisor for raising funds for these projects.

A memorandum of understanding has been signed between Indo-UK Healthcare and Shapoorji Pallonji to construct these 11 institutes of health. The first of the Indo-UK Institutes of Health, King's College Hospital will be set up in New Chandigarh, Punjab.

"This is the first of a proposed eleven new Indo-UK Institutes for Health that will be developed across 11 states.

When fully implemented, they would amount to 1 billion pounds in investment into the country's healthcare system, accompanied by strategic clinical and training partnerships with the finest NHS organisations, universities and private sector companies," the statement said.

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