Susan Gordon, Business Reporter

Rao Raghavo, senior manager (left), and Dr. C.J. Vetrievel, chief of operations, of Apollo Hospital, Delhi, India, are to report to AIC Group on the best business fit for Medical Associates Hospital. - Contributed

Michael Lee Chin plans to pump $150 million - nearly twice the initially announced acquisition cost - into Medical Associates, the private hospital he bought earlier this year.

But on Monday, hospital chief executive Simone Khouri said the hospital's overhaul could cost up to US$10 million ($660 million).

The AIC Group chairman is taking a 67 per cent of the venture, and is now awaiting a report from consultants, the Delhi, India-based Apollo Hospitals, to finalise the decision on monies needed to transform the medical facility into a modern, technologically-driven operation.

Lee Chin told Wednesday Business last week that in six months he anticipates that the hospital will pioneer medical procedures via satellite link-up - called telemedicine - where consultations are facilitated via video-chat.

Plans to expand

Joe Sferrazza, an AIC executive, said the links would be facilitated by broadband, an area in which Lee Chin also has investments via Flow Communications.

"Our focus is that by March 2007, we want to move into telemedicine," said Sferrazza. Initially, the hospital's acquisition was announced as a $65 million deal, but last week it emerged that it could take about 10 times that figure to effect the transformations.

Sferrazza said the fund management company could spend $150 million transforming the Kingston-based hospital to secure the 67 per cent stake in the business.

"Our initial plan is to financially assist in any capacity we can," said Sferrazza.

"We will pour our money in," he said, but added a rider that the investment must make "practical sense."

The monies will be invested "as needed," based on Apollo's recommendations, said the AIC executive.

The Delhi company was contracted to advise on the best clinical services and nursing plans.

But, said Khouri of the planned investment: "We had put it in the region of $60 million but it's going to be far more than that - US$3 million to US$10 million."

The final figure would depend on the Apollo report, due in mid-September, she said.

Two Apollo executives - Dr. C.J. Vetrievel, chief of operations, and Rao Raghavo, senior manager - who were invited to Jamaica by AIC to do their due diligence on the facility, are finalising a report on the best business fit, according to Khouri.

Two months ago, when Lee Chin confirmed his commitment to invest in the redevelopment of Medical Associates, AIC said it wanted to transform the hospital into a model of a modern, high-quality venture, modelling Apollo.

The 47-year-old hospital was owned by a group of investors, among them Ruby Martin, the widow of Dr. John Martin; Red Stripe, the single largest shareholder, and other companies.

Already, parts of the structure are being retrofitted, but AIC plans to reopen the refurbished hospital with the same number of beds it has now - 36.

"We are building new operating theatres, repainting the walls and supplying the system with air conditioners and generators," said Khouri.

Sferrazza said phase one of the redevelopment is to refurbish the hospital, while phase two will add four new operating theatres, boosting the complement to six.

"We are investigating cardio-vascular, neurosurgery, thoracic and other types of operating theatres," Sferrazza told Wednesday Business.

susan.gordon@gleanerjm.com.