Hospital boom

Bangalore has historically been a laggard when it came to healthcare facilities. Its Chennai that was known for its super-speciality hospitals. But ever since the Narayana Hrudayalaya treated Baby Noor Fatima of Pakistan, Bangalore's hospitals have come into focus. Bangalore today has several super-speciality hospitals like the Manipal Hospital, Mallya Hospital, Wockhardt, Narayana Hrudayalaya, HOSMAT and Sagar Apollo, not to mention the gargantuan Satya Sai Insitute of Higher Medical Sciences run by the Puttaparthi Sai Baba. Today there are 70000 beds as opposed to 3500, 20 years ago. Now the city is aiming at the global market with the USP of world class medical services at a fraction of the cost in line with the rising phenomenon of health tourism. On the anvil are more high-end hospitals like the Wockhardt health city on Bannerghatta Road which will have 5 super-speciality hospitals catering to different areas, the MS Ramaiah multi-speciality hospital and the Asian Heart Foundation's cardiac care facility. One question though, how of many of these are affordable to the common man?