Category Archives: Healthcare Cities

Tourism project for island off Doha

Posted on May 9, 2013 | Comments Off on Tourism project for island off Doha

Qatar-based hospitality giant Katara Hospitality is to develop an island near the Ritz-Carlton Doha as an international tourist spot and open hotels in Paris and Milan in the coming months.
Katara Hospitality CEO Hamad Abdulla al-Mulla  told Gulf Times in an interview on the sidelines of the Arabian Travel Market in Dubai that the island, owned by the group near Ritz, would be either developed as a  fashion centre or a medical tourism hub.  He also said that Katara Hospitality planned to launch about 10 hotels in the next 10 years.

Hamad Abdulla al-Mulla: Katara Hospitality CEO

Hamad Abdulla al-Mulla: Katara Hospitality CEO

“The hotel in Paris will be opened in the first week of June and in September this year another hotel in Milan will be launched. Katara Hospitality is the only group that is opening so many hotels each year in the recent times.” 
Al-Mulla said the group was ready to operate the Milan hotel at any time. “From our side we are ready and we have got all the requirements to start the hotel. If there is any delay from the contractor’s side, we will open it by the first quarter of 2014.”
He further said the island off Doha would be developed into a “unique” project. “We are exploring the possibility of turning it into a unique place so that people from all over the world will fly to Qatar to experience it. We are looking for the possibilities of turning it into a fashion centre or medical tourism place or any such grand  project which will be known internationally. Once we finalise the project, we will entrust it to the right people to develop it .”

He  disclosed that Doha Sheraton would be closed for major renovation and  rebranded once the work was completed. “Doha Sheraton will be closed for two years for major renovation from 2014-2016. Once the renovation is completed, it will be rebranded but the operator will continue to be the same.”
As for the Lusail project, al-Mulla said it would be completed according to schedule.  “The Lusail hotel will be the landmark of Qatar and Katara Hospitality.  It will  be completed, latest by early 2017. At any cost we will start operations from 2017.”
He said that the hotel would be operated by Katara Hospitality. “We will be operating the hotel and we want to show to others that we can do it like any other operator. Similarly, we will be operating other hotels under our group in later years.”
The CEO said Katara Hospitality had property worth  QR150bn. “The group will have  around 6,000 employees by 2014.”

As for the projects in Gambia and Maldives, al-Mulla said  the group was ready to start the projects. “However, we are evaluating the market and  studying the feasibility before starting the project. According to the market evaluation, we will start the project. We will be there very soon.”
Operational hotels like Raffles Singapore, Le Royal Monceau – Raffles Paris, Schweizerhof Bern and upcoming hotels like Excelsior Gallia Milan, Bürgenstock Resort Lake Lucerne, Royal Savoy Lausanne or The Peninsula Paris are hospitality jewels that are now part of Katara Hospitality portfolio.

source: http://www.gulf-times.com / Gulf Times / by Joseph Varghese, Staff Reporter / Doha, Qatar – May 07th, 2013

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Posted in Health /Medical Treatment For Overseas Treatment, Healthcare Cities, Medical Tourism/Health Tourism, Medical Treatment/Health Treatment Subject By Speciality, Reports,Features, Statistics, Travelling For Surgery Abroad / Medical Surgery Overseas

Moving forward with medical tourism

Posted on May 4, 2013 | Comments Off on Moving forward with medical tourism
A rendering of the Health City Cayman Islands project in East End. – PHOTO: FILE

A rendering of the Health City Cayman Islands project in East End. – PHOTO: FILE

Out of sight from the East End main road, behind a rise and down a dusty access road, lies a quickly growing series of concrete and metal structures.

By March next year, if everything goes according to plan, these structures will be home to Health City Cayman Islands, a medical tourism hospital with 140 beds, offering cardiac and orthopaedic care to patients from overseas.

The US$2 billion facility is the brainchild of Indian cardiologist Dr. Devi Shetty who is on a mission to make surgeries that the common man can hardly afford accessible to everyone.

The site is rapidly taking shape as Cayman’s first medical tourism hospital, which politicians and businessmen have touted as likely to become a third pillar in Cayman’s economy, alongside general tourism and financial services.

Initial reports that Dr. Shetty was looking at Cayman as home to his latest venture began emerging in late 2009. A deal with the Cayman Islands Government was signed in April 2010.

The developers of the project, who include local businessmen Gene Thompson and Harry Chandi, say it aims to eventually roll out to become a 2,000-bed hospital over the next 15 years, offering services at considerably lower prices than they are available in the United States. While initially it appeared Dr. Shetty would be looking mainly to the US market for medical tourism patients, he announced later he anticipated patients would also come from the Caribbean and Latin America.

The cardiologist, who was Mother Theresa’s doctor, has teamed up with local partners Gene Thompson and Harry Chandi.

At Dr. Shetty’s 1,000–bed Narayana Hrudayalaya heart hospital in Bangalore in southern India, patients undergo heart surgeries for as little as US$2,000. In the United States, those operations cost between US$20,000 and US$100,000.

The project in Cayman is privately funded, but the Cayman Islands Government offered a raft of concessions and waivers to make Cayman as attractive a proposition as possible for the medical facility entrepreneur, who had been also looking as other possible locations for his hospital.

The terms of the deal called for changes to or introduction of legislation, including the Health Practice Law, enabling medical staff trained in India and other overseas countries to practise in Cayman; the Tax Concessions (Amendment) Law to exempt companies from potential future taxes; the Medical Negligence (Non-Economic Damages) (Amendment) Law, which caps pain and suffering damages awarded in medical malpractice cases to $500,000; and the Human Tissue Transplant Law, which allows human organ and tissue donations and transplants to be done in Cayman.

Under the agreement, Caymanians referred from the Health Services Authority will get a 20 per cent discount on surgeries at the hospital; work permit fees for medical personnel employed at the new hospital will cost between 15 per cent and 30 per cent less than normal; and patients and their relatives will be granted a minimum of three months visitors’ visa upon arrival in Cayman.

It also gives the company a 20-year waiver of all taxes on profit, income, gains and appreciations, regardless of whether the law changes to introduce taxes on those.

The company will be exempted from paying customs or import duty on the first US$800 million it spends on equipment and medical supplies. Once that US$800 million has been exhausted, for the 15 years following that, its duty payments on equipment and supplies will not exceed 5 per cent of the cost. In the 15 years following that period, its duty payment will not exceed 10 per cent of the cost of equipment and supplies.

Also, for the first 50 years of operation, it will not pay duty on any life-saving equipment.

The site became the first in Cayman to be granted planned area development status. The Central Planning Authority granted the approval to three separate PADs in January this year. PADs are projects covering more than 40 acres, with three or more distinct uses, which are master planned as one development.

Cayman’s then premier McKeeva Bush inked the deal with Dr. Shetty in April 2010. Mr. Bush had seen first hand how one of Dr. Shetty’s hospitals operated when he travelled to Bangalore to be at guest at the inauguration of one of the entrepreneur’s new hospitals.

Dr. Shetty broke ground at the High Rock site in September last year. The first concrete was poured in February and by mid-April, the walls of the four buildings in the first phase had been erected, roofs were already in place on some of the structures and the construction work was ahead of schedule, according to construction manager Ryan Smith. Once fully operational, the hospital will offer cancer treatments, open heart and bypass surgeries, organ transplants, angioplasty and orthopaedics, Dr. Shetty has said.

The US$2 billion facility is the brainchild of Indian cardiologist Dr. Devi Shetty who is on a mission to make surgeries that the common man can hardly afford accessible to everyone.

source: http://www.compasscayman.com / Cay Compass.com / Home> Article / by Norma Connolly   norma@cfp.ky  / April 30th, 2013

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Posted in Associations/Organisations/Government/NonGovernment, Healthcare Cities

China’s Tropical Island Plans Medical Tourism Zone

Posted on April 10, 2013 | Comments Off on China’s Tropical Island Plans Medical Tourism Zone

The island province of Hainan has published a plan to build China’s first special zone for medical tourism, an official said on Saturday at the Boao Forum for Asia.

Under the plan, the Boao Lecheng International Medical Travel Zone will be located near Qionghai City and Boao Town, covering an area of about 20 square km, said Zhu Huayou, vice head of Hainan’s development and reform commission.

The southern part of the zone will feature health care centers for the elderly, patients with chronic disease and those in poor health, while the northern part will focus on medical treatment and research, Zhu said.

Medical tourism, which combines travel with leisure and healthcare, is already popular in some Asian countries like Singapore and India, and it is likely to boom in China thanks to rising living standards.

The zone in Hainan will make use of traditional Chinese medicine, the local tropical climate and world-class medical institutions the island aims to introduce, according to Zhu.

The official said that overseas medical institutions will be allowed to set up business within the zone. Other preferential policies will include lower taxes for imported medical instruments and medicines, and frontier medical programs like stem cell research will be allowed.

Construction of the zone is likely to cost up to 100 billion yuan (roughly 16 billion U.S. dollars).

The tropical island province, with its sun, sea and sand, is striving to build itself into an internationally famed travel destination.

According to the provincial statistics bureau, visitors to the island exceeded 33 million in 2012, with travel revenues hitting 37.9 billion yuan.

source: http://www.english.cri.com / CRI English.com / Home / Xinhua / Web editor: Mao Yaqing / April 06th, 2013

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Posted in Associations/Organisations/Government/NonGovernment, Healthcare Cities, Medical Tourism/Health Tourism, Reports,Features, Statistics

Apollo Health city bags best Medical Tourism facility award

Posted on March 25, 2013 | Comments Off on Apollo Health city bags best Medical Tourism facility award

Hyderabad-based, Apollo Health City has bagged the best Medical Tourism facility award in India for second time in a row. The award was presented by Pranab Mukerjee, President of India at New Delhi.

Expressing his happiness for the award Dr Prathap C Reddy, chairman, Apollo Hospitals Group opined that India has the required human resource skill and the infrastructure to produce clinical outcomes that compare with the best institutions in the World and that too at a very affordable and much lower cost. “This award is a great inspiration and bestowed more responsibility on our shoulders. Team Apollo will continue its journey towards making India a global healthcare destination with renewed energy and vigour,” said Dr Reddy.

Apollo Health City, located in the beautiful Jubilee Hills area of Hyderabad is a perfect example of an integrated healthcare delivery system. With a 600 bedded super-specialty hospital, wellness, education, research, rehab and healthcare information technology on a single campus, Apollo Health City, Hyderabad offers solutions across the healthcare spectrum.

Patients from over 30 countries utilise the facilities at Apollo Health City. Patients come for a wide range of services including organ transplantation (kidney, liver and cornea transplantation), robotic surgery, cancer treatment, joint replacement surgery, cosmetic procedures, eye procedures and cochlear implantation.

Apollo Health City, Hyderabad, celebrates its Silver Jubilee this year and this Medical Tourism Award is a wonderful recognition of the persistent and committed efforts of every member of the Apollo Family.

source: http://www.pharmabiz.com / Home> News> Health & Insurance / by Pharmabiz’z Bureau, Hyderabad / Tuesday, March 19th, 2013

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Posted in Healthcare Cities, Medical Tourism/Health Tourism

$1bn Medical City set for 2016 launch

Posted on February 2, 2013 | Comments Off on $1bn Medical City set for 2016 launch

Muscat :

The promoters of the $1 billion International Medical City project in Salalah plan to bring the prestigious healthcare infrastructure and medical tourism venture into operation in 2016, according to a high-level executive of the flagship development.

Dr Naeema Aziz, Project Director, said the integrated development, which will house the region’s first purpose-built transplantation and rehabilitation centre, as well as Oman’s first advanced tertiary care hospital and diagnostics centre, promises to transform the country’s healthcare landscape.
“The International Medical City will open a new chapter in Oman’s healthcare development,” said Dr Aziz. “It will establish the Sultanate as a regional hub for transplant based medical tourism, encompassing kidney, liver and pancreas transplantation and rehabilitation services. Besides easing the government’s burden in providing tertiary healthcare services, this prestigious venture will also contribute to economic development in Salalah, and create employment for Omanis,” she added in a presentation at the Oman Construction Summit yesterday.
Development of the unique project is expected to begin in earnest this year on an 870,000 sq metre waterfront stretch overlooking the Arabian Sea. The plot has been allocated by the Ministry of Tourism, underscoring strong governmental backing for the scheme. The Ministry of Health is also supporting the development as a strategic partner, she said.
The International Medical City project is being spearheaded by the Dammam (Saudi Arabia) based Apex Medical Group, which is a wholly subsidiary of Al Joaib Investment Group, a major Saudi firms with interests primarily focused on the oilfield contracting services. Apex Medical is currently weighing partnership offers from Omani, as well as GCC investors, said Dr Aziz.
Given the size and ambitious nature of the venture, the International Medical City will be implemented in three phases, according to the project director. The first phase will centre on the construction of a 530-bed multispecialty tertiary care hospital supported by three proposed centres of excellence in transplantation services, rehabilitative care, and diagnostic services.
Envisioned in Phase 2 is a healthcare resort complete with 4-star medical hotel. Residential quarters for faculty and staff, serviced apartments for clients, and commercial components will also be added in this phase. The third phase will focus on the development of a medical education complex featuring dedicated medical and nursing colleges, and an R&D centre.
Importantly, the reputed American global hospital brand, Methodist International, has been roped in as the strategic partner in the project. The Texas-based brand will be responsible for hospital programme management and the secondment of senior executive staff to manage the Medical City.
Drawing a timeline for the implementation of the project, Dr Aziz said the development of infrastructure would commence this year, alongside the engineering design of the healthcare components and serviced apartments. Actual construction of the healthcare cluster, as well as the serviced apartments, is targeted for completion in 2015. The Medical City will be formally inaugurated in 2016, she added.
Bank Muscat has been appointed as Financial Advisors for the project. The pre-concept master plan was undertaken by Atkins. Korea’s Asan Medical Centre has been named the Strategic Partner for the training of staff in transplantation care.
Significantly, the International Medical City will create an estimated 1,000 jobs during Phase 1 of the project, rising to around 3,000 when all three phases are operational, Dr Aziz added. The Oman Construction Summit 2013, organised by Global Exhibitions and Conferences in partnership with IQPC, formally opens today.

source: http://www.main.omanobserver.com / Oman Daily Observer / by Conrad Prabhu / Monday, January 28th, 2013

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Posted in Associations/Organisations/Government/NonGovernment, Healthcare Cities, Medical Tourism/Health Tourism, Reports,Features, Statistics