Unihealth Consultancy Limited, founded in 2010, is at the forefront of this global healthcare expansion, aiming for universal accessibility by innovatively revolutionizing medical tourism.

Dr Parmar highlights, “Facilitating services for medical tourists was a competitive space by 2012. For us at UniHealth, the aim was to make these services accessible to a larger population in a cost-effective manner. With this vision, in early 2013, we entered into a unique collaboration with Ethiopian Air, to launch the ‘UniHealth – Ethiopian Air Medical Travel Program’, an initiative that allowed UniHealth to expand its footprint across the African continent and provide patients traveling to India a single-point access for the entire range of services required to plan their treatment in addition to allowing them avail 25 per cent discount on their travel tickets.”

Dr Shah adds, “By 2015, after having travelled to more than 25 countries on the African continent and closely studying their healthcare requirements, we resolved to take an important step forward in redefining UniHealth’s business model and put in place ‘Vision 2025’ for the company, a decision that gave birth to Unihealth Medical Centres and UMC Hospitals, and have eventually contributed in reshaping health infrastructure in Uganda, Nigeria and Tanzania.”

Under its flagship 'UMC Hospitals' brand, the Group operates 200 tertiary care beds and three medical centers in these countries, serving over 100,000 patients each year.

“We have designed our facilities in line with Indian hospitals and installed equipment sourced from leading Indian manufacturers, replicating the Indian model and ensuring that the required capex and recurring operational costs are minimized. This ensured the profitability of our units and gave us the opportunity to scale up services by continually adding newer specialties. UMC Victoria Hospital, our flagship facility in Uganda, is the country’s only hospital to have modular OTs and centralized medical gas systems. The facility has been accredited by United Nations to provide services to the beneficiaries of multiple UN Agencies in the region”, mentions Dr Shah.

UniHealth entered the healthcare consultancy services market in 2019, a significant vertical focused on assisting upcoming healthcare projects with turn-key solutions for planning, designing, equipping, and commissioning their facilities.

Dr Parmar outlines, “We have developed an in-house team specializing in all segments of a project cycle, from planners and architects to designers and engineers, all having relevant experience of working on healthcare projects. The idea is to integrate all services to provide comprehensive solutions and ensure that designs take into consideration important aspects related to the functionality and operative challenges witnessed in such projects. This is an important factor for our clients in underdeveloped countries where accessibility to consultants having the desired skillsets is both, limited and expensive.”

“Inter-linking of various verticals of the industry, from consultancy services and distribution to operations and management, have allowed us to redefine the industry in countries like Uganda, Nigeria and Tanzania and aid in the development of their healthcare infrastructure, making specialized services accessible to the underserved populations. By 2025, we aim to have an operational capacity of 1,000 beds under UMC Hospitals”, emphasizes Dr Parmar.

The company's current projects include over 1,000 beds spread across Asia and Africa. UniHealth significantly expanded its export and distribution wing in 2020, becoming the authorized distributor for leading Indian pharmaceutical and medical consumables in a number of African countries.