Hyderabad :

Ahmedabad-based Asian Bariatrics (AB), which specializes in bariatric surgery, on Saturday, announced the launch of its first centre in Hyderabad. This is AB’s third dedicated centre in India after Ahmedabad and Rajkot, where it has a total capacity of 100 and 20 beds, respectively.

“In Gujarat, we get around 25% patients from south India, a majority of which hail from Hyderabad. Given the high demand, we felt it was important to have a dedicated centre for the city, where treatment for people suffering from morbid obesity could be provided treatment and weight loss surgeries can be performed by experts,” AB chairman Dr Mahendra Narwaria said, adding that the Hyderabad centre, with an initial capacity of 15 beds, has been set up at an investment of Rs 8-10 crore.

He said the number of bariatric surgeries has been increasing in the country rapidly as in 2007 only 400 such surgeries were performed as compared to 18,000 in 2014. AB’s Hyderabad will be the first centre in India, where the EMI option will be extended to patients, he said, adding that the cost of the surgery ranges Rs 2.5-Rs 8 lakh.

On expansion plans, he said they plan to open one centre each in Mumbai and New Delhi by the end of this fiscal with investments of around Rs 15-20 crore and a bed capacity of around 30-35 per centre.

source: http://www.timesofindia.indiatimes.com / The Times of India / News Home> City> Hyderabad / by Swati Rathor, TNN / October 17th, 2015