Practo is now foraying into secondary health care with the launch of Practo Care Surgeries. It has also unveiled over 50 Practo Care Surgery Experience Centres in six key metros namely Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Pune, Mumbai, Ahmedabad and Delhi-NCR.

The company is building an omnichannel healthcare ecosystem for secondary care procedures, that will enable users to seamlessly cross over between digital and physical, and out-patient to in-patient environments.

In the last three months, Practo Care Surgeries has facilitated consultations with over 5000 patients for secondary surgeries and has onboarded over 200 surgeons in its partner network.

“An integrated approach to care delivery is key to better patient experiences and outcomes. So far, we’ve been helping patients connect with doctors, both digitally and in person. This launch is a natural next step to address the need and demand for a seamless, convenient, and end-to-end delivery experience in secondary care, ” says Shashank ND, Co-founder, and CEO, Practo.

Currently, Practo Care Surgeries is helping fulfil over 50 surgical procedures across three specialities viz. general surgery, urology, and ENT, in six cities. The company plans to expand its network to over 30 cities, launch more than 300 centres, add more specialities (viz. orthopaedic, gynaecology, ophthalmology, to name a few), and onboard hundreds of surgeons by the end of next year.

To make the experience affordable for its customers, the company will offer healthcare financing to the tune of Rs 1,000 crores over three years. It has also partnered with insurance companies to enable customers to have a hassle-free and seamless experience.

The company also plans to branch out to tier-2 and tier-3 cities centres to broad-base their offerings as the demand from these centres is on the rise.

According to Dr. Alexander Kuruvilla, Chief Healthcare Strategy Officer, Practo, “A large volume of crucial surgeries like hemorrhoidectomies, hernia repairs, etc may often be deferred by patients due to lack of information, costs involved, the cumbersome process in claiming insurance, lack of post-surgical support, and more. This is where Practo Care Surgeries comes in.’’

Reports indicate that approx. 20 million surgeries take place in India every year, with almost 80% of these falling under secondary care. The sector is estimated to be US $ 10-12 billion in size, indicating the need for increased efforts to strengthen and improve access to quality surgical care and delivery.