Growth is back on track; have seen growth volumes: Apollo Hospitals

Past two-three quarters have been challenging with demonetisation, goods and services tax (GST), price cap on stents and what not. In an interview to CNBC-TV18, Suneeta Reddy, MD of Apollo Hospitals Enterprises, spoke about how things are looking right now.

This quarter looks much better, growth is back on track and we are seeing that the volumes have grown and with insurance and digitisation, people now have better access to the hospital which clearly suffered over the last two quarters, she said.

There was an impact of price control on stents but going forward, we are targeting a recovery of 200 basis points (bps) and it was a temporary blip and we have learnt how to overcome these challenges, she added.

On the fear of more medical devices coming under price control, she said, Indian healthcare is going to become 15 percent of gross domestic product (GDP) and this is the fifth largest employer. The healthcare sector is hugely underserved in terms of providing for healthcare beds. So anything that would hurt growth in terms of regulation would stop investments into the healthcare space, she believes the government will be sensitive to these issues.