India’s Apollo Hospital Enterprise Limited has taken an initiative to begin operations in Bangladesh.
Initially, they plan to start by providing education and training to Bangladeshi physicians. They also plan to expand their scope of work later.
During a recent visit to Dhaka, Dr Ilankumaran Kaliamoorthy, Chief Executive Officer of the Chennai region of Apollo Hospitals and Senior Consultant (Liver Anaesthetist and Intensivist), told Prothom Alo about the initiative.
During the visit, he and his colleagues met senior officials of the health sector. They also visited several hospitals in Dhaka and Chattogram and held meetings with hospital authorities.
Dr Ilankumaran Kaliamoorthy said, “We want to work in partnership. We want to provide hands-on training to local physicians. The goal is for trained physicians to be able to deliver treatment here at the same standard as Apollo Hospitals. We believe this is possible.”
Apollo Hospitals Enterprise Limited is a multinational healthcare group based in India. Its headquarters is in Chennai. It operates the largest hospital network in India, with 71 hospitals under ownership or management and about 10,000 beds. It is one of the largest hospital networks in Asia.
Dr Ilankumaran Kaliamoorthy said, “We will provide training on cancer treatment and robotic surgery. We have special expertise in kidney and liver transplants. We want to help build expertise among Bangladeshi physicians in these areas as well.”
He also mentioned that many Bangladeshi patients regularly travel to India—especially to Chennai—for such treatments.
For these training programmes, Apollo is initially considering major hospitals, including Bangladesh Medical University. Hospitals with sufficient infrastructure and facilities in relevant areas will also be considered. However, the exact nature of the partnership has not yet been finalised. According to the Indian specialist, further discussions between the two governments are needed.
Recently, Indian High Commissioner to Bangladesh Pranay Verma met Health Minister Sardar Md Sakhawat Hossain at the Secretariat. They discussed potential cooperation between the two countries in the health sector, which has been reported in the media.
Referring to this, Dr Ilankumaran Kaliamoorthy told Prothom Alo, “The meeting between the Indian High Commissioner and the Health Minister sends a positive signal. We, as physicians, can play a major role in strengthening and deepening relations between the two countries.”