CK Birla Hospitals opens info centre in Dhaka

Three hospitals of India’s CK Birla Group have opened an information centre and an outreach clinic in Dhaka in partnership with a Dhaka-based company in an effort to establish “direct contacts” with Bangladeshi patients.

CK Birla Group owns Calcutta Medical Research Institute, BM Birla Heart Research Centre and Rukmani Birla Hospital, collectively known as CK Birla Hospitals.

The hospitals receive 5,000 patients a year from Bangladesh, Chief Executive Officer Uttam Bose said at a media briefing in Dhaka on Saturday.

“Now we have opened this centre to establish direct contacts with the patients and to avoid middlemen.”

After receiving treatment in India, patients can now follow up from Dhaka through tele-consultancy with the digital centre, he said.

The Reflect Medical Centre in Dhanmondi is housing the outreach centre.

Thousands of Bangladeshis go to India for medical treatment.

Of the 460,000 inbound patients in Indian hospitals in 2015-16, more than 165,000 were from Bangladesh, which means one in three foreign patients was from Bangladesh, according to latest data from the Indian government.

They bought over $343 million worth of services. More than 58,000 medical visas were issued in that period from Bangladesh which means many having other categories of visas took medical attention in India. India also relaxed medical visa rules.

However, Bangladeshi doctors complain that foreign hospitals are luring away patients through their agents.

Brokers give “false information” about Bangladesh’s health services to lure away patients, Vice-Chancellor of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Medical University Prof Kamrul Hassan Khan, told bdnews24.com earlier.

Bose, however, said their aim was to create direct contacts with the patients as they are still receiving patients without any information centre. The purpose of the centre is also to improve post-treatment services, he said.

“We are not corporate or for-profit hospitals. We have a philanthropic objective.”