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ON LINE CONNECTIVITY

I went there this year to deliver the key note address at the Annual conference of the American Association of Physicians of Indian Origin (AAPI), whose member ship is about forty thousand. They wanted to honour me. In fact, they had honoured me during their first annual conference in Chicago. This is our twenty-fifth year and they are also celebrating their twenty-fifth year. So they insisted that I should attend. I am glad I went. I could meet and interact with a lot many of them. I could build a strong inter-relationship. I told them that even if you don't come back, there is a lot that you can do from wherever you are. Some of them have come forward to be available for on line consultation. We can provide the on line connectivity from the clinics.

Everyday I say hello to the villagers who are connected on line during the telemedicine conference.

Rama: I can say without fear of contradiction that, with Apollo around, it is great to fall sick...Now; you have been pro-active in modifying Government regulations to suit current medical trends. How did you succeed in this?

Dr P C Reddy: I think I must give the credit to Mrs Gandhi. I told Madam that only the powerful and rich can today have the best medical treatment. She didn't get annoyed. She asked me, 'What do you mean?' I said, 'Powerful, that is, those who wield power with the Government will get free air ticket and get their medical reimbursement in the US. For the rich, they don't bother about the money they spend. But it is the others who need this.' That is how she brought down the duty for medical equipment from 180 per cent to zero.

RAJIV GANDHI

The other Gandhi, Mr. Rajiv did much more. I was told he doesn't read long letters. I sent him a brief, crisp letter. I said I wish I had started a beedi factory or a beer factory instead of a health-care project. If health has to come along with your vision of the twenty-first century, I would like one, two, and three. The first one was, I need funding for hospitals, which should be treated as an industry. Today if there is an ultra sound machine in a village, you must give credit to Rajiv Gandhi. In three weeks, he got the act amended in Parliament so that clinics and Hospitals became eligible for funding by Banks and other financial institutions. The second thing I sought was, 'Treatment today with all the technology we have is certainly more expensive, because we handle more things. But nobody could afford it at that time. So, we need access to the mechanism through health insurance or health plans.' He asked me what was needed. I said what was needed is tax exemption. He gave Rs 10,000 tax exemption. The third was much more. Suppose someone has a surgery in our Hospital. The guy who had had a by-pass surgery in my hospital would get a second heart attack when he sees the Income Tax notice. He said this was stupid. Thus he did these three major things in 1989 when he was the Prime Minister.

RURAL AREAS

I think these two people made the difference. And the present Government has added an impetus. In the budget, they have done three things. First thing I said, today, there are not only Apollo Hospitals, but other hundred hospitals too, which are giving excellent care in some of the specialised areas. But it is only in metros. Now, Indians need not go abroad for treatment. They are coming here from abroad. Seventy percent of Apollo patients are overseas patients. But then, this is a phenomenon restricted to the metros. What about the seventy per cent of people living in small towns and villages? We need to do something for this. I am happy, on the basis of our representation; our Finance Minister has in the budget announced that Hospitals in non-metros will have a five-year tax holiday. At Apollo, we formed a new entity called Apollo Reach Hospitals. There is a potential to start seven hundred to thousand of these. We would start with twenty five to begin with Already we have procured twenty one sites. We want to launch it during our twenty-fifth anniversary. We would request our Prime Minister, if it is convenient to him, to formally launch it.

Rama: Can you explain the Medvarsity and Mednet concepts?

Dr P C Reddy: Today, there are not enough teachers in every discipline and the worst affected is Health. There are not adequate numbers of teachers in Medical Colleges, Nursing Colleges and Para-medical institutions. So, we thought, why not create a virtual Medical University? This is what is called Medvarsity. And we have the largest content, about twenty thousand hours of content for unergrads, postgrads , practicing physicians, specialists, nurses, technologists, the whole range of it. What is missing in a class room, they can get in a Medvarsity. I started this eight years back. Dr. Mahendra Bhandari was the first vice Chancellor. Now Dr S S Reddy and his team are doing an excellent job. I think it is going to be a global project.

Rama: You started your first overseas clinic in Dubai in 1999. What's your experience abroad?

Dr P C Reddy: Some how, you know, unless you have a majority, it is not always favourable in another country. Hereafter, either I should have an absolute majority or, I will do the project and undertake the operative management, with the option of buying the equity. This is our decision, because you learn a lesson with each experience.

Rama: With so much responsibility, are you able to discharge your duties as a Cardiologist with international experience?

Dr P C Reddy: I miss it. Yes, I miss it. I must say that is the saddest part of my career. Sometimes my patients are very disappointed that I am not able to attend on them. So, what I do is, when they meet my secretary - I have four Doctors who are with me for ten years - they are escorted to one of them. They get all the investigations done. I see all the patients whenever I am free - between 5pm and 8 pm, once a week or once in ten days. They are very happy. Of course it is a small compensation.

Rama: I don't think it is small... You had plans to write a book on the making of Apollo. Any progress?

Dr P C Reddy: Not as yet.

Rama: When you left the Worcenter City Hospital in the US, to start your own practice in Chennai, you had a modest earning of One Hundred Rupees a day. What is the secret of your achievement?

Dr P C Reddy: I think, I have always believed that I should do the best possible to every person who comes to me. And to those who have trust in me, I should live up to their trust. For motivating our people, I have told them only one thing. Don't do anything more than what you would have done to your own kith and kin. If you do that much, it is enough. This is where they say that Apollo care is great. That is because we are giving to everyone the same level of tender love and care that we would have given to our own most dear ones. This is inculcated in each one of us. So you will do your very best, automatically.

THE THREE P�s

And secondly, purity, patience and perseverance, these three Ps are behind our success. You need patience if you want to do anything substantial. When I started this Hospital, if there are a million bricks in this building, I had a million problems. They said, you cannot start a Hospital in more than five hundred squire yards. You can't fund a Hospital. For importing your equipment, you should file twelve applications to twelve different offices. I had any number of such obstacles. So, I needed to have patience and perseverance. If these two are there and if your purpose is pure, success is yours.

Rama: The other day you were talking of alternate medicine. Can you elaborate?

Dr P C Reddy: Whatever you say, this medicine is, say fifty years old. But people fell sick and they were getting treated for hundreds of, thousands of years. My father, for example, never took any medicine till he was seventy one- I mean the medicine that we now talk about. But, there is a Vaidyar in the village. He will come home every day or every fifth day or every one week, he will give him something. He was not charging any fees. But annually he will get some rice, some fruits or something in kind. So I think it had existed for a long time. Now, we must bring it back and see which one is most effective.