ITC looking for a CEO to enter healthcare

Kolkata: ITC Ltd, which is planning to enter healthcare business, is searching for a CEO to build up a plan for this purpose, a top company official said on Friday.

"The requirement for healthcare demand is growing in India. There are lots of complaints generally that the focus of many of the hospitals is on revenue generation because people have built hospitals by borrowing money.

"We would like to enter the healthcare business by creating an exemplary multi-speciality hospital that keeps the patient care as the central focus of enterprise, not incentivise doctors or anybody in creating revenue...," company's Chairman and Non Executive Director Y.C. Deveshwar told reporters here.

He said that there are many complaints that patients are an 'instrument of revenue'.

"We want to create an example where no patient would ever feel that the focus of attention is on revenue and not in the well-being of the patient. That is our objective. We have not made beginning. We are now in search of a CEO," Deveshwar said.

He indicated that after selecting a CEO, who will be responsible for building up the plan, the company will firm up the plan.

Asked whether the company will come up with a chain of hospitals, he said: "First, we will have one hospital and then look forward."

He said that "we will not link doctors' remuneration with revenue generation, rather link it to patient outcome".