An Ace Reformer

Managing Director of Ruby General Hospital and President of the Association of Hospitals of Eastern India, the dynamic Sajal Dutta has championed reforms in Bengal's ailing healthcare industry. Joy Roy Choudhury profiles him.

We all know him as the high-profile Managing Director of Ruby General Hospital and President of the Association of Hospitals of Eastern India (AHEI), who has peddled Bengal to international healthcare investors and convinced private hospitals to form a consortium to offer care at subsidised rate to poor patients. In short, he has pumped life into West Bengal's flagging healthcare industry. So, on a sunny Kolkata morning I decided to meet this man with lofty dreams.

The 'Ruby' Story

He starts off with the success story of Ruby General Hospital, which has emerged as one of the leading multi-speciality referral hospitals in Eastern India, spearheading a new genre in critical care, introducing latest technologies and conforming to international standards.

"When the hospital was set up, there was no other corporate hospital in the entire Eastern region," reminisces 49-year-old Dutta, sitting at 'The Enclave', the five-star lifestyle floor of the hospital overlooking the sun-kissed Eastern Metropolitan Bypass.

Under Dutta's guidance and leadership, Ruby was the first hospital in the region to receive the ISO 9001:2000 quality certification. The certification means that Ruby's systems for maintaining hygiene, operational efficiency and treatment facilities conform to international norms. The pathology lab of the hospital is one of the very few labs in the city to acquire the NABL accreditation.

"Since its inception, our focus has been to deliver total healthcare to every patient at a cost which is affordable to all, not exorbitant. We have always adhered to the quality benchmarks and emphasised patient satisfaction," he maintains. He has been instrumental in creating the 'Ruby' brand. "Today, anyone can easily relate quality healthcare with Ruby. We have practised what we have preached," says Dutta, happy that his hard work has yielded fruit.

"If you face an emergency and ask a cab-driver to take you to a private hospital, he knows where to take you. He will take you to Ruby General Hospital. Over the last one decade, we have been successful in creating this 'Ruby' brand. This is the biggest achievement for us. People from different walks of life come to Ruby with the hope that they will get the best possible treatment, be it for critical care or for any minor ailment," says Dutta, his eyes glinting with pride.

He is also instrumental in implementing Six Sigma techniques in Ruby, making it the first corporate hospital in the Eastern region to do so. "The objective of Six Sigma is to improve profits through defect reduction, yield improvement, improved consumer satisfaction and best-in-class product/process performance. We have started getting results after applying Six Sigma techniques," he explains.

Furthermore, in 2003, Ruby Hospital inked an agreement with BUPA International, UK's leading independent health organisation, which owns hospitals, healthcare centres and nursing homes in Europe. This agreement entitles BUPA's nearly eight million members to avail Ruby's facilities and services. "This is a landmark achievement as it is the only hospital in the Eastern region to enter into such an agreement with a global healthcare chain. The agreement reaffirms the fact that Ruby's standards are on par with other international hospitals," opines Dutta. Ruby has also entered into a tie-up with Vanbreda International of Belgium for treating international patients. Why the emphasis on international tie-ups? "International tie-ups help us to revise and update the techniques and knowledge of our doctors," Dutta explains.

Background

The skill required to become an ace manager was acquired during his management studies. After getting his Bachelor's Degree in Mechanical Engineering, Dutta completed a management programme in 'Finance & Systems' from the leading B-School of the country, Indian Institute of Management, Kolkata in 1980. He took up a job at Rediffusion, an advertising agency, but soon realised that this was where he wanted to be. He appeared for the GMAT, where he secured 99 percentile and enrolled for the PhD programme in Business Administration at Columbia University in the United States. But he again dropped out and started a career in International Trading. His parents' ill health in the early 90s made him return home to Kolkata.

He was appalled to see the dearth of proper healthcare facilities in the 'city of joy'. And he was thus determined to usher in winds of change. He approached the State Government with a proposal to set up the region's first corporate hospital. The State Government consented and the construction of Ruby General Hospital started in 1993. The hospital became operational in 1995.

Although a novice in the healthcare industry at that time, he never digressed from his dream. His vast expertise in successfully managing international business and applying modern management techniques to healthcare set-up came handy.

AHEI

The forum that gave Dutta's dream of affordable healthcare a platform is the AHEI, the representative body of 13 corporate hospitals of the city, which starting in a small way, has done some commendable work over the last five-six years.

Scripting a new chapter in Public Private Partnership (PPP) a few years ago, the AHEI member hospitals had decided to offer common pathology, radiology and cardiologic diagnostic facilities at highly-subsidised rates to patients referred by the state government healthcare units (like state-run hospitals, district hospitals and health centres). The tests are priced 40-70 per cent lower than the existing market rates.

This tie-up benefited all patients referred by a government hospital for outdoor investigation. To avail this facility, a patient would have to visit any of the member hospitals with the OPD card issued by the Government hospital, or the health centre.

"Nearly 100 popular tests have been brought under this scheme; these include routine blood, urine and sputum tests, X-rays, ultrasonography, ECG etc. I believe no other association in the country has introduced such a thing," says Dutta.

During the recent dengue fever crisis which gripped the city, all the member hospitals conducted blood tests for the affected at minimal cost. Besides, AHEI is conducting several awareness campaigns in the city and organised the 'AHEI-Health Fair' at the city's Netaji Indoor Stadium in 2004, where all the member hospitals participated.

But what has got the spotlight on AHEI, is its proposal to the State Government to set up a health city in the Southern fringes of the city in South 24 Parganas district, christened 'Bengal Health City'.

Bengal Health City

Everyone knows that if Bengal Health City has taken off today, the credit for it should go to AHEI in general and Dutta in particular. "As the President of AHEI, I was part of several high-level delegations to the Middle East nations and ASEAN countries where we have showcased India's strengths in the healthcare arena and Kolkata as an emerging healthcare hub."

The health city will have 100 hospitals with a capacity of 50,000 beds. Besides, the health city will have medical colleges, nursing institutions, technical training centres and hospital management schools. The hospitals will have super-specialised facilities like referrals, laboratories, PET scanner and gamma knife for necessary investigations. This apart, telemedicine facilities along with tele-cardiology and telepathology will be set up in individual hospitals.

It will also have provision for hotels and guesthouses to accommodate about 25,000 people visiting with the patients, shopping malls and Cineplex too. There will be an international building for foreign medical tourists that will house interpreter services, travel services, representative offices of foreign consulates and other government offices. The city will also have a private airfield for the convenience of international patients. Plans are also there to outsource common services like catering, laundry and advanced diagnostic services. There will be other common facilities like waste management, power plant, electronics laboratories, Ayurvedic centre and naturo-therapy unit. On the hospital campus, pharmaceutical and other companies will set up warehouses, where surgical, disposables and implants will be stored.

"We will go for various levels of international accreditation like JCAHO. The entire infrastructure will be planned as per international healthcare delivery standards," Dutta says. AHEI has assured that the hospitals to be set up at the healthcare city will cover the entire gamut of latest facilities available anywhere in the world. Bengal Health City is likely to provide employment opportunities to almost three lakh people.

When fully operational, the forex earnings of Bengal Health City should touch USD 2 billion. Nearly 20,000 beds are likely to set up in the first phase in over 400 acres of land. Global healthcare majors have evinced keen interest to participate in the project and set up hospitals at the Health City. "But I cannot name them at this juncture," he says.

Government's Role In Healthcare

What does the man who set up the first corporate hospital in Kolkata feel about the role of government in healthcare? "The responsibility of the government is to provide security, education and health to people of the country. While India is one of the largest democracies in the world, where nationals are secure and we are making giant strides in the field of education, health is a neglected area. Though the government with its limited resources has been shouldering the onerous task of providing healthcare to all, it has time and again accepted that it has failed to provide quality healthcare to all. So, today it is inviting private participation in the health sector," says he.

The West Bengal Government has designed a unique Public Private Partnership (PPP) policy for the healthcare sector. Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee, the West Bengal Chief Minister himself has been advocating this policy. Many such PPP projects are currently operational in the healthcare sector and a few more are coming up. The State Government, the Kolkata Municipal Corporation and a private promoter are jointly promoting a neuro-surgical centre coming up in the city. In most of the PPP projects the State Government's participation will be minimal.

"I believe that the State Government should aggressively promote this policy. The Government should on its part play the role of a facilitator. I personally feel that the State Government should rather focus on strengthening the primary healthcare delivery services and secondary services, if possible, and leave the tertiary services for private sector intervention," Dutta opines.

Family Matters

A workaholic, Dutta gets little time to spend with his family. But he manages to squeeze out as much time as possible from his busy schedule to spend with his two children and his wife. "We go out on vacations once a year for 10-15 days either in India or abroad," he says.

He unwinds by interacting and spending time with management students and budding entrepreneurs. "I regularly get invites from different B-schools to deliver lectures on different aspects of management education. At the B-schools I share my experiences with them. I really love doing this," he shares.

The Road Ahead

The situations and circumstances around Dutta provoke him to perform. "I ventured into the healthcare arena when I felt that there was a dearth of quality healthcare delivery systems in Kolkata." Now that Ruby has established itself as a quality healthcare centre in the region, his next 'passion' is to set up an affordable healthcare facility for those sections of the society who cannot afford to pay for quality healthcare services.

He is working on a business model towards making healthcare affordable to people. The model works on generating high volumes with low margins. "In our country, almost 80-85 per cent people are beyond the purview of quality healthcare facilities. They still have to rely on government-run hospitals, healthcare units and health centres as they cannot afford advanced medicare. My passion is to provide healthcare to this section of the society at affordable rates," he says.

The model will be able to pay the salaries of the staff in time, pay off our loans and dues to the banks and FIs in time and at the same time payback the shareholders. "I am certain that we will soon work out such a formula and I am hopeful that we will break ground in affordable quality treatment facility in the coming two to three years time," he says.

The first step towards realising this dream has been taken at Ruby. A 12-bed ward named after the Nobel Laureate 'Mother Teresa' is already operational in the hospital. The ward is specially earmarked for the needy and underprivileged. "Here, quality healthcare services are provided to the poor at subsidised rates," says Dutta, before he winds up the interview.

joy.roychoudhury@expressindia.com