Pushpa Narayan

Chennai: Hospitals in Chennai are teaming up with neigh¬bourhood family physicians for group practices that they hope will not just reduce the waiting time of patients with minor ailments at multi-specialty hospitals, but also bring down their bills. The hospitals, meanwhile, get cases referred to them by the clinics.

While Apollo Hospitals has put in place a chain of 10 clin¬ics in the city, others are look¬ing at different business models. While Malar Hospitals has been looking at tie-ups with family consultants within 10km of the hospital, the Life¬line Group of Hospitals is plan¬ning seven family physician centres across the city by the end of the year. On Monday; it launched the first such clinic in Vettuvankeni on East Coast Road, where the consultation fee has been fixed at Rs.50. If a patient goes to the Lifeline multi-specialty hospital, he/she will have to shell out Rs.150 for consultation.

“People with simple heart ¬burn wait for hours outside cardiologists’ clinics assum¬ing that they have a heart at¬tack or they rush into emer¬gency wards of hospitals. We have seen people with ankle sprains waiting to meet or thopaedicians and others with headaches booking appoint¬ments with neurologists,” says Dr.J.S.Rajkumar, chairman, Lifeline Group of Hospitals.

In a study, the hospital found that only eight in 100 pa¬tients required admission and of these, only two needed crit¬ical care. "People throng big hospitals because of the ab¬sence of a family consultant. We believe the association of a neighbourhood doctor as a partner of a big hospital will bring more patients to him. This will help us identify diseases early and send them to the right specialist,” says Lifeline medical director Balasubramanian.

Hospital are also getting innovative with clinics. Apollo Hospitals has evening clinics for office-goers.

“We offer them cold/hot tow¬els and coffee and snacks while they wait to see the doctor," said Apollo Hospitals CEO George Eapen. Lifeline is planning to tie up with schools and offices to print the name and contact details of the fam¬ily physician on identity cards. However, hospitals know it's not going to be easy find¬ing specialists. "People are coming to big centres because they are not sure of the qual¬ity of care at small clinics. It's important to decongest our hospitals and the way forward is to network with family physicians," said Gopinath, head of marketing and sales, Malar Hospitals.