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Tamil Nadu
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Chennai
Pratap C. Reddy. CHENNAI: Twenty-five years ago when President Zail Singh cut the ribbon at Chennai’s first corporate hospital, its founder Pratap C. Reddy could see a number of people in the audience sniggering behind their hands. A quarter century later, with Apollo Hospitals creating a network of world-class health facilities, it is Dr. Reddy who is laughing all the way to the bank. Faith in himselfDescribed as a visionary, Dr. Reddy could obviously see further ahead than some of his guests. Having just seen a young patient die because he could not afford to raise funds to go to the United States for treatment, Dr. Reddy realised that there was a crying need for a world-class hospital providing services at an affordable cost. It helped that he had tremendous faith in himself and the capabilities of Indian doctors, and that he was not willing to put a cap on his dreams. “We have the power, we just have to discover it and give it to the world,” Dr.Reddy says, a couple of days before the 25th year celebrations are scheduled to take place. Models of excellence
Reminiscing, he says: “We brought models of clinical excellence from the West and fashioned it appropriately for our situations.” Today, it is not just Apollo, but a 100 good hospitals doing a good work in speciality care, matching international standards. His model involved providing the cost advantage to patients, without compromising on procedures, outcomes and excellence. He decided on the principle of cross subsidisation to provide differential rates, and thereby the cost advantage to patients who cannot afford premium rates. Today, the hospital has performed 64,000 heart surgeries, with a 99.6 per cent outcome, and has a one-year success rate in liver transplantation of 85 per cent. In the last quarter, five of the nine Apollo hospitals showed zero infection rate. All thanks to a 60,000-strong Apollo family. Health Highway“The key is innovation,” Dr. Reddy says. The last 25 years have been a continuous process of innovation, and it will continue. His latest idea is a Health Super Highway, which will ride on the existing broadband network to take the latest in treatment to small and mid-level hospitals and nursing homes. There will also be a tie-up with Ericsson to get wireless connectivity to link remote areas without the Optic Fibre Cable network. A Universal Hospital ID will be assigned to each patient, the calling of which will provide the entire history of the patient at all hospitals of the Apollo network. 25 hospitals comingMore recently, the Prime Minister and the Tamil Nadu Chief Minister launched the first two Apollo Reach Hospitals, aimed at taking speciality care to rural areas. Twenty-five hospitals will be built, each at the rate of Rs.10 crore, in rural and semi-urban areas with five specialities, including organ transplantation, to touch a billion people. A total of 250 hospitals will be built in phases all over the country, he says. Apollo’s health knowledge city will also come up in Dr.Reddy’s hometown of Aragonda in Andhra Pradesh. Meanwhile, Dr. Reddy wonders what the next innovation will be and whether it will help him ride faster.
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