In the 1980s, when I was in my UG class, IRMS was a premium service for all my batch mates except a handful who had enough steam to run on their own.
You see, in those days, Railway Hospital, Chennai was a premier cardiac destination in the whole Chennai cityscape.
Then in 1983, Dr Pratap Reddy announced that he had acquired a plot of land for the first Apollo Hospital on the Greams Road, Chennai.
[ Since then, it has grown into a chain of 54 hospitals, 1600 pharmacies, 60 diagnostic clinics and 11 nursing colleges in 2013.
Dr Reddy’s medical system attracts more than 100,000 footfalls DAILY across India. ]
But Apollo had inadvertently opened the Pandora’s box. It was a catalyst to encourage hordes of corporate Hospitals and their business model in it’s footstep.
Earlier big private hospitals were few and far between. There were private nursing homes though. But Nursing homes wouldn’t take acutely ill patients in every discipline.
If you had a serious illness which requires a multidisciplinary intervention Government medical college was the only answer. But there you got good treatment, only if you were a VIP.
The rich and powerful who needed a CABG would go to the US. But for the man on the street, quality hospital care was virtually non existent.
So in the 70s, Railway Hospitals were a big draw for raw talent. Perambur was the nursery for all good names in CTVS India. Every cardiac Surgeon here has to cut his teeth there.
Today, it’s different. The corporate hospitals have filled that gap in the health care. They could provide an extremely broad range of high-quality medical services under one roof, on payment of course. No one needed a Visa anymore for any world class Medical care.
…
So then,
How is it relevant to IRMS ?
I believe…
Apollo changed the model of health care delivery in India.
It also dealt a soccer punch to all the Government Hospitals below their belt including the RHS and left them gasping.
Rising income levels, changing demographics, shifts in disease profile, availability of world class hospitals have increased the expectation of level of health care of the common Indian. Railway man was no exception.
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It’s certainly beyond the scope of Railways to run a Hospital at par with the complexity of Apollo or Ganga Ram or Fortis.
So Railways followed the easiest way out.
“if you can’t win them, join them”
and handed its cancer institute over to TMC for better management.
Instead of building up it’s own capacity, it went on merrily tying up with whoever promised to accept CGHS rate.
…
The biggest casualty of this process is the IRMS doctors with a PG degree.
The veterans have sold themselves Lock, Stock and Barrell to RHS. They can’t even think of a separate existence at this advanced age.
How can they compete with their peers sitting in a 5-star ambience, with most modern equipments around them and scribbling next gen branded Medicine without any restriction ?
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Dr Pratap Reddy describes his goal thus: “My vision for the Apollo Hospitals Group is to touch a billion lives.”
He certainly touched one particular segment of Indian Health Care model. He changed the fabric of the entire IRMS beyond recognition.
It can never be the same again.
It all changed after Apollo.
Dr Ramakanta's Ideas 