Aster DM Healthcare announced opening of three new hospitals under two different brands in the UAE. The healthcare major will also launch the first phase of Aster Medcity. Among the three new UAE hospitals, the first project is the Aster Hospital in Mankhool, Bur Dubai.

The facility, with 85 beds, is in the final phase of the preparation for commissioning in the third quarter of the year. The other two projects - the 75-bed Medcare Mother & Children Specialised Hospital on Sheikh Zayed Road-Dubai and a 110-bed Medcare Hospital in Sharjah - are nearing completion, and scheduled to open very soon. The three hospitals will have a combined capacity of 270 beds, ensuring better accessibility, availability and affordability of quality healthcare for more patients.

The super-specialty Medcare Mother & Children Specialised Hospital would offer comprehensive mother and child care with an advanced neonatology unit, and a super-speciality centre for post-delivery dermatology and skin care. The Medcare Hospital in Sharjah would be a multi-specialty premium hospital. The Aster Medcity in Kochi-Kerala, prepared for a soft launch of the Phase-1 in February, is a conglomeration of several super-specialty hospitals in one campus that spreads over 40 acres of land along one kilometre waterfront, aimed at integrating nature with healing.

Dubbed unique as a global healthcare model with high-end infrastructure, cutting-edge medical technologies and excellent knowledge partnership with healthcare innovators from different parts of the world, the iconic medical city will be a major healthcare destination in the South Asia once it's operational. As Kochi is well connected to the Middle East and several countries of the world, the 1,100-bed capacity medical city will be within easy reach of local and international communities, especially the people from the Middle East, Africa and European Union for advanced and cost-effective care. The state-of-the-art quaternary care referral hospital cluster is being developed at an estimated investment of USD 300 million.

The Aster Medcity will capitalise the potential of the Kerala as a health tourism destination, attracting patients from all around the world and promoting reverse brain drain of Indian healthcare professionals. A fourth hospital, under the Aster brand, is also being developed in Qatar and scheduled to launch in 2015. The new projects in the Middle East, at an estimated investment of AED 260 million, will offer advanced care through a synergy of cutting-edge medical technology and highly qualified medical professionals of multinational and multilingual background.

With the new hospitals, the bed capacity of hospitals under Aster DM Healthcare network will be increased by 5,000 over the existing 1,850 beds. The Group is also planning to roll out another 25 Aster medical centres and 150 Aster pharmacies across the GCC by the end of 2015 to achieve its planned 300 units by the year 2017. Aster Medcity will have a pool of internationally recognised doctors, researchers and medical professionals migrating back to India with their wealth of global expertise, skills and exposure to the advanced knowledge garnered from top-ranked medical institutes across the world.

Meanwhile, Aster Medcity will provide the best international standard treatments at the lowest cost in the subcontinent. A workforce of approximately 2,000 specialty doctors and other staff will be deployed for patient care in the first phase of the project. A high-end residential facility of about 1.5 million Sq.Ft.

is also planned with an integrated township to accommodate a population of about 10,000 people. Aster Medcity will have intellectual and operational partnerships with international healthcare establishments like Johns Hopkins Medicine International- USA and The Hospital for Sick Children, University of Toronto- Canada etc.