ITC seeks CEO to run hospital with patient care as top priority

KOLKATA: Cigarette and consumer goods maker IT C Ltd has started searching for a chief executive officer (CEO) to lead its proposed entry into the healthcare business, for which it obtained shareholders’ approval last year, chairman Y CD eve sh war said on Friday.

Though the CEO to be hired will chart the road map for the business, the company has already decided what it wants its “multi-specialty hospital” to deliver—a paradigm change to give patient care higher priority than anything else such as revenue generation, he said.

In India, many hospitals face allegations that they are focused on shareholder returns and they treat patients as“instruments for revenue generation ”, D eve sh war said, and added that what ITC is looking to build is an “exemplary” facility with patient care as its “central focus”.

A key ITC official had earlier said in an interview the company is not looking to generate shareholder returns from the venture, though the hospital will be made financially sustainable on its own.