The Trailblazer

He not only established the first corporate hospital—Apollo Hospitals, Chennai, but also modified regulations to smoothen the process of establishing private hospitals. Today, he rules an empire— the Apollo Hospitals Group with around 10,000 beds

Dr Prathap C Reddy (75 ) Founder Chairman, Apollo Hospitals Group

Born in 1933 at Aragonda village of Tamil Nadu, he received his pre-medical degree from the Madras Christian College and his medical degree from Stanley Medical College, Chennai. He worked as a Resident at Worcenter City Hospital in the US and Missouri State Chest Hospital, US.

Before being an entrepreneur

After a decade in the US, he decided to come back to India. "As a cardiologist, my practice was flourishing in the US. But a letter from my father made me change my mind. Being a connoisseur of cars, I sent some pictures of a new car that I had bought, to my parents back in India. My father wrote back saying when would India reap the benefits of my affluence. I decided to follow the wisdom of my father and came back," Dr Reddy recollects. He chose to work at the 30-bed HM Hospital in Chennai for a sum of Rs 100 per day as a cardiologist. He worked there for a decade.

Why an entrepreneur?

He dreamt of providing the latest treatment in cardiology to his patients someday in a hospital built by him, but it was a single incident that firmed up his plans. While he was practising at HM Hospital, he used to often refer patients to Dr Denton Cooley, Houston for coronary bypass surgery, as the success rate of CABG in India was a lot to be desired at that time. "On November 9, 1979, I had this 38-year-old patient, who could not go abroad for surgery because he could not afford $ 30,000. When this person died leaving his young wife and two children, I was distraught. I said to myself that this tragedy should not occur to another person," he shares.

The first move

While working at HM Hospital, he started functioning from a small room atop a garage. . Later, he shifted to a rented house. At that point of time, he wanted to build a hospital that would function as a professional institution. "I studied successful hospital models outside India and realised that the most successful ones are corporates. Hence, I decided to build a corporate hospital," says he. After modifying many regulations, he started construction of Apollo Hospitals, Chennai in 1980. However, work was stopped for over a year by the municipal authorities due to regulatory issues. "During that time, people advised me to go back to practising cardiology. They also offered to buy the half-constructed building. But I could not give up," he states resolutely. Finally, on September 18, 1983 President Gyani Zail Singh inaugurated the then 150-bed hospital.

Overcoming roadblocks

The journey to build India's first corporate hospital was riddled with innumerable hurdles. "At that time, hospitals were either public or charitable, so explaining to the Government and bureaucracy about the importance of a corporate hospital was difficult. It took me two years just to get the hospital registered as a company," he shudders to remember.

The tale of woes continued on every move he took ahead. "We could not raise money from banks; we were asked to build a hospital in 500 yards. I had to make multiple trips to the finance ministry and the PM's office to modify such regulations," he recollects. It was former PM Rajiv Gandhi who got the Institutional Act amended in Parliament, so that clinics and hospitals became eligible for funding by banks and other financial institutions. "Finally, I raised 50 per cent from banks and 50 per cent through foreign exchange," he informs.

At that time, one had to make 12 applications to both Central and State Governments for acquiring imported equipment. "Thus I had to make 12 applications each for the 370 medical equipment that we acquired," he sighs. Another deterrent was a whopping 180 per cent duty on imported medical equipment. Dr Reddy lobbied to reduce the import tax to zero per cent from the PM's office.

Fears and apprehensions

It was an uphill task for Dr Reddy to convince good doctors to leave their Government jobs and join his hospital. It was equally difficult to attract NRI doctors from hospitals in the US and the UK for his project. "And to convince people that they should align themselves to my vision and mission was another challenge." Mistakes made and lessons learnt

He regrets not expanding Apollo Hospitals, Chennai much before. "I also wish that we had implemented HIS at Apollo from day one," he laments.

Over the years

From a single hospital in 1983, the Apollo Hospitals Group has expanded to over 10,000 beds across 44 hospitals in India. Today, Apollo Chennai is the largest hospital of the Group with 900 beds. The group has recorded a turnover of Rs 3,118 million for the quarter ended March 31, 2008- an increase of 31.6 per cent over the income of Rs 2,368 million for the corresponding period of last year.

Dr Reddy is now spreading Apollo Hospitals Group to other parts of Asia. The Group opened its first clinic in Dubai in March 1999 and is coming up with projects in Sri Lanka, Africa, Bangladesh, and Oman. Dr Reddy has also set up secondary health centres in semi-urban and smaller cities.

The group has also diversified into allied fields of healthcare. It had set up India's first hospital consultancy body- the Indian Hospitals Corporation, a health insurance company (Apollo DKV), a TPA (Family Health Plan Limited), a chain of pharmacies (Apollo Pharmacy), a slew of lifestyle clinics (Apollo Clinics), a hospital management education and research body (Apollo Hospitals Education and Research Foundation) and medical BPO. .

Contribution to healthcare

Dr Reddy has been instrumental in bringing several regulatory changes related to licensing, ceasing of import restrictions and permission for organ transplants. He is instrumental in changing the 180 per cent duty on imported equipment and also giving Rs 10,000 tax exemption to people for buying health policies.

Awards

He has won the Padma Bhushan award in 1991, Asia-Pacific BioBusiness Leadership Award 2005 and Sir Neel Ratan Sarkar award for medical excellence in 1998.

Tips for entrepreneurship

"Focus and do things innovatively," he suggests.

An entrepreneur that he admires in healthcare

"Dr Denton Cooley, Houston who trained me," says he.

The Road Ahead

He is working on building a Health Knowledge City in Chittoor which would include a hospital and training facilities offering knowledge in 54 areas of healthcare. The target is to have 250 hospitals within a decade. "We shall add 20-25 hospitals every year. We also want to focus on the concept of Reach Hospitals which focus on providing specialty treatment in semi-urban areas. With an initial bed strength of 10 -150 beds, each Apollo Reach Hospital can be ramped up to a 200-bed speciality hospital," says he. Also in the pipeline is a medical college which would involve an investment of over Rs 110 crore with a capacity intake of 100 students initially.