Ancillaries or Vendor Development in Indian Healthcare Sector

It was the second visit to Chennai's Apollo Hospital, a renowned corporate chain with its Chennai unit creating a niche for itself,both domestically and globally.The present blog doesnt get into the services provided by the chain or the other aspect attached to it.It talks about the indirect employment generation, contribution towards the state exchequer of Tamil Nadu which has compelled me to scribble this blog.Apollo in the Greams Road of Chennai with its different subsidiary like Heart Hospital, General Hospital,Children Hospital,Dental Hospital have created a wide range of employment for the local youths of the area and also indirectly in other parts of India.The number of small lodge, motels all over the area filled with patients coming from different parts of India and other parts of the world,predominantly, the Middle East, generates revenues for the owners.At no point would you witness empty rooms in those joints, which talks a lot about their occupancy rates.Most of these patients checking in stay put for a longer period of time, and also come back for follow-up and prefers to check in at the same old destination.The queue of auto drivers all around the hospital premises and hovering around the motels and hotels provides them readymade income without much effort.The travel and tourism operators are present in almost all the reception enclosures of those motels, providing ticketing facilities while they return back to their respective homes, apart from arranging tours locally in Chennai and the rest of Tamil Nadu.The number of medicine retailers offering hefty discounts ranging to even 15-20 percent on a high value bill so as to poach patients from the in-house apollo chemists and druggist says it all, about the drug retailing industry.Even the restaurants offers food matching the taste buds of all the patient and their dependent folks. As most of the patients coming are from the North Eastern and Eastern part of India, one would see signboards in Bengali,that too in a far flung Tamil Nadu, where even Hindi, the national language doesnt have any takers!Its the impact of money,honey!It is time for the Tamil Nadu government to take notice of the same so as to organize all these ancillaries, which would culminate in better infrastructure, avoid hoarding and generate more employment and money for the state exchequer.Is Karunanidi and Company listening?