Kolkata: The Apollo Group of hospitals was looking at expanding its medical business process outsourcing to the United States and UK, clinching new tie-ups with companies there with an increase in its existing manpower.

The group was talking to overseas partners in Eastern USA and UK to expand its medical BPO in the niche area of billing, coding and adjudication, Apollo chairman Pratap C Reddy told a press meet in Kolkata on Saturday (Nov 27, 2004).

"We are talking to companies based in Boston, New York, Atlanta and New Jersey to increase our presence in this sector, which is fast catching up," he said.

The company currently earns a revenue of around $ 3 million annually accounting for about 3 per cent of the total revenue of the group. "But we are seriously looking at a substantial increase in this amount during the next financial year."

Reddy said the group had doubled its BPO unit manpower to 500 heads in Hyderabad and was looking at three more cities in the country to create new BPO bases. Kolkata could be one of them.

He also said the group's city-based 320-bed medicare centre, Apollo Gleneagles, would also be expanded over 3 acres to include a 75-bed facility and provide radiation oncology as a new mode of treatment.

An advanced cancer care PetCT scan machine would also be installed soon for the treatment of cancer, heart and brain diseases, he added.