SOUKYA forays into accessible healthcare with SUGHA; international venture in Portugal in the offing

For over two decades, he built SOUKYA into an integrative healthcare destination. Set amidst a sprawling green campus on the outskirts of Bengaluru, the centre has attracted royalty, heads of states, business leaders and patients from more than 125 countries seeking an approach that combines Ayurveda, Homeopathy, Naturopathy, Yoga and conventional medicine under one roof.

Despite its global reputation as a premium wellness integrative health destination, Issac Mathai, founder-chairman, managing & medical director of SOUKYA, said the next phase of his work is aimed at making the same model available and accessible to a wider section of the Indian population.

Rather than moving away from SOUKYA's premium positioning, the new initiative at creating a parallel healthcare ecosystem that is more accessible, insurance-supported and designed for the broader population.

Integrative format

The centrepiece of this strategy is SUGHA, an accessible integrative healthcare initiative beginning with a 100-bed hospital near SOUKYA in Hoskote, on the outskirts of Bengaluru. The long-term plan envisages a network of 1,000 beds over the next five years through multiple 100-bed centres across cities including Bengaluru, Delhi, Mumbai, Hyderabad, Chennai and Kochi, besides tier-two cities. The first hospital under SUGHA format is scheduled to open mid-2027 in Hoskote.

Dr. Mathai said, "The model may be different, but the medical standards, the integration of different systems of medicine and our focus on what is best for the patient must remain the same."

While SOUKYA will continue as a highly personalised residential integrative health centre serving Indian and international guests, SUGHA will provide residential integrative care across broader price points, with insurance support wherever possible for patients across income groups.

Long before SOUKYA became internationally known, charitable clinics operated by his team had begun serving villages around Hoskote. That outreach, which initially covered only a handful of villages, now extends to nearly 150 villages and around 1.5 lakh people through free consultations and medicines. "These experiences demonstrated that integrative medicine could be both clinically relevant and socially accessible," Dr. Mathai opined.

Focus on collaboration

Even as SOUKYA has become synonymous with wellness tourism, nearly 70% of people who come to the centre seek help for specific medical conditions rather than preventive wellness. These include chronic respiratory disorders, neurological diseases, autoimmune disorders, musculoskeletal conditions, irritable bowel syndrome, allergies and skin diseases.

In cancer care, SOUKYA positions itself as a complementary rather than alternative treatment provider, working alongside conventional oncology. The emphasis is on chronic disease management rather than acute intervention. He repeatedly argues that while modern medicine excels in emergency care, surgery and infectious diseases, long-term conditions increasingly require a broader approach.

"The future of healthcare lies in collaboration rather than competition between medical systems," he recommended. "No single medical system has all the answers. Healthcare should be centred on achieving the best outcomes for patients, regardless of which medical tradition provides the solution," said Dr. Mathai.

He believed that India's traditional systems of medicine provide an opportunity to complement conventional care rather than replace it. One example he cited is that Ayurveda's emphasis on identifying disease tendencies before symptoms fully develop, allowing earlier intervention through lifestyle changes and thereby preventing or keeping a disease away for several years.

The demographic shift occurring across Europe, Japan and North America, he observed, makes this increasingly relevant. As populations age, healthcare systems are dealing less with infectious disease and more with diabetes, hypertension, arthritis, Parkinson's disease and other chronic disorders that require continuous management rather than one-time treatment.

Overseas foray

Alongside expansion of SUGHA in India, SOUKYA is also preparing its first overseas venture. After evaluating locations in Greece, Italy and Spain over nearly five years, Dr. Mathai has chosen Portugal for his maiden international project. The 150-acre property, located about 45 minutes from Lisbon Airport, will include around 80 beds and is expected to become operational by the end of 2028.

Dr. Mathai said Portugal was selected because of its supportive regulatory framework, government backing and relatively efficient approval process. The facility is intended primarily for patients from Europe and North America who currently travel to Bengaluru but find repeated long-distance travel difficult.

The current expansion programme represents a planned investment of approximately ₹270 crore. Of this, about ₹220 crore is earmarked for Portugal and ₹50 crore for the first phase of the Bengaluru-based SUGHA hospital.

According to him, funding will come through a combination of internal resources and external financing. For Portugal, the organisation is pursuing local bank finance and exploring European Union funding. Future expansion within India, mostly around the SUGHA format, is expected to follow an asset-light model where partners provide land and infrastructure while SOUKYA retains operational management, clinical governance, treatment protocols and quality control.

"We are not pursuing a conventional franchise model because that could dilute the standards, protocols, philosophy and culture that define our traditional approach," Dr. Mathai said. His priorities remain expanding the SUGHA network, executing the Portugal project and demonstrating that integrative medicine can function as a mainstream healthcare model.

Dr. Mathai welcomes the growing acceptance of AYUSH treatments by insurance providers, particularly through NABH (National Accreditation Board for Hospitals) accredited institutions, believing this significantly improves accessibility for middle and lower-income families.

He also supported greater collaboration between private healthcare providers and government efforts to develop India as a global medical value tourism destination through standardised quality benchmarks and accreditation.