Good Health Just a Phone Call Away with Alacurity's One Stop Concierge Service

Friday November 02, 2012 , 5 min Read

India has come a long way from being a very poorly equipped country with respect to healthcare to a well regarded healthcare destination. Though we have not achieved universal health care and there is huge gap in targets and achievement in terms infant mortality, female feticide, improved life expectancy, etc. However there is no denial in fact that today a person does not need to go overseas for any kind of Cardiac Surgery, Brain surgery, Cancer Treatment, High end diagnostics or various orthopedic treatments. Today India is a highly regarded medical tourism destination. Many patients from US, UK, CIS, SAARC and Africa come down to India quite frequently.

So far what has been lacking is an organized structure of pre and post Hospitalization facilities. There are good doctors, equipment and Hospitals. However when somebody comes to India, they need many more things than just hospitals. They need to stay over for long time. They need proper accommodation, food, translator, Nurses, Physiotherapist, need to buy or rent equipments. These all things need to be handled. If a person is coming to a new location; this is a real pain. It does not only cost a lot of money, but also requires a lot of efforts.

Alacurity has entered into this niche. “We are offering these all services through prequalified service providers. On top of this, it is at many times at better than market price. All this is because we negotiate for these services well in time - not in stressed situation, as people with a patient would be forced to do,” says **Shyam Sundar Znwar**, Founder, Alacurity.

Alacurity, seedfunded by InQvent Holding, started in early 2012 with the aim to provide all the services just at 1 call. Highlighting the expertise and human capital India has in terms of the highly qualified Doctors, Shyam says that, “Indian Doctors and medical practitioners are accepted world over as best educated, experienced and with very high emotional quotient. Because of this the treatment provided by them is supposed to be very high quality. Indian doctors are placed at all the best hospitals all over the western world as well as in Middle East. India has nowadays best quality hospital chains run by professionals having international exposure. These chains also have in-house international marketing departments to cater to specifically medical tourists. Due to this focus; they try to emulate best technologies available at anywhere at their competitors.”

Alacurity serves in three different ways:

Patient care: by way of Nurses, Physiotherapists, translators, Serviced Apartments, flight bookings or recuperation assistance, etc.

Equipments: Through the alliance with Manufacturers or direct importers, offering substantial discounts and reliability with Genuineness.

Preventive care packages: Specially designed age wise and gender wise highly discounted preventive packages that also give tax benefits over & above standard tax benefits.

On the business front, the firm has taken help of IIM students in suggesting them several potential venture opportunities. “When we initially thought about a venture in Healthcare; it was obvious that everybody is investing in Hospitals, Clinical trials and similar capital intensive, highly visible ventures. It is also clear that due to this focus these segments have been fairly well equipped and organized in nature. However we are looking for a scalable model and a typical patient in mind; whether coming from overseas or coming from a nearby city. There are several service providers available. However there are no reliable, quality conscious, branded service providers. We found that this could be a new niche in the healthcare segment, which can be further scaled up on a pan-India basis. So we zeroed in on this model after scrapping several other models,” adds Shyam.

Shyam found it very difficult to explain his idea to the affiliates. He accentuated on the difference in their services and the empathy with the patient and long-term business mind-set. “We are getting requests from many large Hospitals to handle their Travel & concierge desk. We can compare our services like a radio taxi / travel service co’s services against any next-door taxiwallah (taxi driver) taking you to some tour. Each of our services is offered at market driven prices. We are either earning by selling our packages, offering services, selling equipments or through concierge desks at Hospitals. Our margins are because of superior negotiation, which is done well in advance,” adds Shyam.

“Health care is not an impulse buying business. There is a need to create awareness about the availability of service, importance of organized player. On supply side; we are constantly building our alliance partners. We have to carefully pre-qualify the partners as our brand name is attached to the product and services being delivered. This is a slow process as there are many service providers but we need to identify who should be our affiliate. It is also a well know fact that Nurses and Attendant are not available in abundance. This is a technical work and only experienced &certified people can work,” says Shyam, sharing the challenges he currently faces.

Although utilizing the services of Alacurity costs money, it is a fraction of what patients would pay in US, UK or other perceived high technology locations. Also, for Medical tourists, they can be assured of good technology, experienced doctors and efficient pre and post hospitalization facilities in India.

Do check out this one stop concierge service for your healthcare needs!

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