Medwell Unit Nightingale Expands To Mumbai

Nightingales Home Health Services, a unit of the Bangalore-based home healthcare service delivery group Medwell Ventures, has entered Mumbai by opening its first service centre in the city at Nariman Point. The South Mumbai centre is the tenth national branch of Nightingales, which has already established strong presence in Bengaluru and Hyderabad. The company will set up 9 more centres in Mumbai in the next 18 months, said co-founder and chairman Vishal Bali, while announcing its Mumbai foray on Wednesday (February 24). 

Established in 1996, Nightingales has been the pioneer in Indian home-based healthcare delivery business and since its acquisition by Medwell Ventures in 2015 the company has transformed its services and has been on rapid expansion across key metros in the country. Home-based healthcare delivery, which provides comprehensive healthcare services at home including visits by doctors, nurses, physiotherapists, respiratory therapists and wound care therapists, is one of the fast growing segments in the modern healthcare business. 

Nightingales has also established certain specialised protocols for management of patients with strokes, COPD, congestive heart failure, diabetic wounds and musculoskeletal issues at their home.

“India is going through a transformation in its healthcare delivery ecosystem and speciality led home healthcare services with a focus on chronic diseases will play a key role in this transformation,” says Bali. 

In India, non-communicable diseases heart diseases, COPD, strokes, cancers and diabetes currently account for 40 per cent of all hospital stays and 35 per cent of OPD visits as they become chronic diseases and cause for 60 per cent of mortality in the country at present. It is also estimated that non- communicable diseases and neurohealth issues will cost India about $4.58 trillion by 2030 and will create huge health affordability issues in the country. 

“Our model of home healthcare through Nightingales aims to reduce recurrent hospitalisation of patients with chronic diseases by devising personalised care plans for their management at home,” added Bali.

Nightingales currently provides healthcare coverage through its network of 5 branches in Bangalore and 4 branches in Hyderabad. Some of its branches also provide on-site physiotherapy services in conjunction with home physiotherapy to provide patients with the continnum of care.

According to Nightingale’s CEO Lalit Pai, chronic diseases are a key healthcare issue in Mumbai with a high re-hospitalisation rate. “We are bringing to Mumbai our deep experience of home based care protocols and a well-qualified clinical, paraclinical and professional management team.” he said.

Nightingale’s South Mumbai branch will cover 3.2-3.5 million people and subsequent branches will come up in the suburbs of Mumbai. With more than 60 per cent of hospital beds currently present in South Mumbai we see post hospitalisation care as an integral offering from Nightingales,” Pai said.

The company, which has a full-time team of 600 people, currently provides 10,400 home health services per month across its spectrum of care plans and currently has more than 150 post stroke patients under its care delivery. It has also started an innovative home dentistry service for the elderly and has served more than 1000 patients across the two cities. 

Medwell Ventures, founded by Bali and three of his partners in 2014, had raised a series A-round funding of $10 million from Fidelity Growth Partners India (currently known as Eight Roads) for its pan India expansion. The specialty healthcare delivery company, which will offer services such as remote health monitoring, tele-health, diagnostics, rehabilitation and wellness therapeutics, plans to invest $15-20 million in the next three-five years. 

It acquired Bangalore-based Nightingales for an undisclosed amount soon after the founding. Medwell, currently aims to establish a healthcare delivery network in 10 Indian cities, serving over one million families in the coming years, supported by a cloud-based technology platform.