Covid has changed the way we lead our lives. The healthcare industry has undergone a metamorphosis of sorts with increased awareness for preventive steps and to be prepared for the worst. While the focus is on wellness, the industry also makes good business sense. With long-term structural factors supporting growth, renewed impetus from Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana (PMJAY), and government focus shifting onto the healthcare sector, the healthcare delivery market in India is expected to grow at a CAGR of 10-12 per cent from Fiscal 2022 to reach Rs8.6 lakh crore in Fiscal 2027. The healthcare market for western India in particular, is expected to grow at a CAGR of approximately 14-16 per cent from Rs1.05-R1.15 lakh crore in Fiscal 2022 to Rs2.15-R2.25 lakh crore in Fiscal 2027. This is where multi-specialty tertiary and quaternary healthcare providers such as Jupiter Life Line Hospitals come into the picture. “Hospital is meant for communities, and it is all about meeting their needs in the shortest possible time,” says Dr Ajay Thakker, Chairman, and Managing Director of Jupiter Life Line Hospitals, which has focused its work in tier-2 cities such as Thane, Pune, and Indore. The basic idea is to ensure that one does not have to travel more than half a km for a well-equipped hospital, he points out. “We follow a patient-first ideology by creating the best infrastructure, technology, and support to put the patient first and foremost and be futuristic and innovative in the delivery of healthcare. We have equipped our hospitals with over 30 specialties, including key specialties of organ transplant, oncology, orthopaedics, cardiology, paediatrics, neurology, and neurosurgery as well as certain specialised quaternary services and precision-based treatments such as brachytherapy, radiotherapy, robotic knee replacement, and robotic neuro rehabilitation,” says Dr Thakker, who has over 30 years of experience in the field of medicine and healthcare. Jupiter’s Thane and Indore hospitals are amongst the few facilities in the western region to provide neuro rehabilitation services through a dedicated robotic and computer-assisted neuro rehabilitation centre. They also operate one of the few multi-organ transplant centres in Thane. Dr. Thakker launched a scan and imaging centre in Thane about three decades ago, and that’s how he realised the importance of a good hospital as the patients were forced to go to Mumbai, braving traffic jams. The Thane hospital was started in 2007. Jupiter scaled its operations by setting up a hospital in Pune in 2017 and acquiring one in Indore in 2020. “These places are densely populated micro markets which have a low presence of chained hospitals, which provides us an opportunity to offer our services to a larger population and helps our patients with greater access and connectivity to healthcare services,” says Dr Ankit Thakker, an Executive Director, and Chief Executive Officer at Jupiter Life Line Hospitals. Track record “Our clear focus is on an all-hub-no-spoke model with each hospital being a full-service hospital, operating independently and serving the healthcare needs of patients, right from diagnostics to surgery and rehabilitation,” explains Ankit, son of Dr Ajay Thakker. “We have established a track record of clinical and operational expertise, which has led us to build our reputation and brand largely through word-of-mouth publicity, and this is reflected in consistently growing patient volumes over the years,” he says.