THE VISIONARY DOCTOR
Express Healthcare Management, India
Issue dtd. September 2006
Dr Alok Roy, Vice President, Fortis’ Centre for Community Initiative,
has to his credit the record of building the maximum number of
hospitals in India. But his heart beats for rural healthcare. He
talks to Sapna Dogra about his life, profession and dreams.
Micro health insurance, telemedicine, HIV/AIDS and corporate social
responsibility are the four areas where the 48-year-old Dr Alok
Roy’s heart lies these days. According to him, weak forces drive the
world because strong forces are very few and they can’t bring in any
change. Therefore, it is important to empower the weak and healthcare
is an intrinsic part of the process. To change the lives of the people
in the hinterland, corporate hospitals won’t really help, says the
philosopher doctor. These four arenas can change the lives of the
people, which is more important than merely providing treatment,
professes Dr Roy.
A Born Leader
Born in 1958 in Allahabad, Dr Alok Roy had a normal middle-class
upbringing. He is the youngest of the five siblings (two brothers and
three sisters), but calls himself the mentor as they all listen to his
advice. His father had a transferable job in the Central Government,
which made the family traverse the entire length and breadth of the
country, including Delhi, Maharashtra (Mumbai) and Orissa. "I guess
this is the reason that I don’t feel I belong to one region or state
but I feel for the entire country," states Dr Roy. However, he has
a soft corner for Kolkata because he spent eight important years of
his professional life there and built four hospitals.
Being the youngest in the family, naturally he was naughty and
mischievous, but he was a bright student.
He used to play cricket in school and college, and was a part of
NCC. He was a shooter. He also contested in college elections and
won. "I would take part in each and every competition both at school
and college level," he remembers. Though no one in his family was a
medico, since childhood Roy nurtured the ambition of being doctor. The
reason was noble. He thought a doctor could have an impact on other
people’s lives besides being respected by all.
As a youngster he used to read avidly since there was no TV then. He
devoured classics by literary luminaries like Premchand, Tarachand
Bandopadhaya et al. "I think vernacular literature is very rich and I
had read all the classics in Hindi and Bangla while I was in school,"
divulges Roy. Currently, he is reading ‘Managing Without Power’
by R Meredith Belbin.
According to him, "It is an interesting book on gender, which says
anything weak will sustain in the long run."
Beginning Of An Illustrious Career
After class 12, he sat for the medical entrance test and was seventh
in merit for SCB Medical College, Cuttack in 1976. At that time, his
father was posted in Cuttack. In 1983, he joined the AIIMS for PG in
nuclear medicine. After that he did one year DRM from Mumbai. What
made him choose nuclear cardiology? "It was a lesser-known field that
time and I loved challenges," he reasons. Also, there were limited
options; he wanted to do something different.
He had opportunities to go abroad at that time. "AIIMS was producing
PGs to go to the US," he says. But the patriot in him didn’t want to
leave India and he decided to stay back because there was so much to
do here.
On May 10, 1988, he got an offer to join BM Birla Heart Centre. "That
time there were not many private hospitals in the country except
for a few like Jaslok Hospital and Bombay Hospital and though I got
a job as Assistant Professor at SGPGI Lucknow, I decided to join
the private hospital, which was a very bold step those days," he
reminisces. Everyone was against this decision, but his wife Kavita
supported him all the way through.
He helped set up the 140-bed BM Birla Heart Research Institute in
Kolkata in 1989. He also managed the institute for about eight years,
during which period more than 8,000 major heart operations were
performed there. In 1996, he joined Manipal Heart Foundation (MHF)
and was responsible for the turnkey management at MHF, a 200-bed heart
hospital project. "It had six operation theatres to perform 12-14
heart surgeries a day and three cardiac catheterisation laboratories.
The centre performed 6,000 major heart surgeries in a record period
of less than four years," says Dr Roy.
In the year 2000, he set up the 130-bed Rabindranath Tagore
International Institute of Cardiac Sciences, Kolkata for the working
class families of West Bengal in association with the Government of
West Bengal. He has also been successful in setting up the world’s
largest 780-bed super speciality heart hospital, Narayana Hrudayalaya
in Bangalore. The first phase of this hospital with 280 beds was
commissioned in April 2001 and has already achieved a path-breaking
record of performing over 4,500 surgeries, over a period of 18
months. He also built Armenian Church Trauma Centre in 2004.
In 2005, Roy joined Fortis Hospital Noida as its CEO and under his
guidance, the hospital has earned a name for world-class facilities
and treatment at affordable rates. "I wanted Fortis to be more than
just a healthcare delivery centre, it should work beyond the realm
of health providers; hence we started telemedicine, micro-health
insurance activities and, health camps," says the visionary doctor.
Re-engineering of hospitals is Roy’s passion.
Recently, Rahul Gandhi entrusted him with the responsibility of
revamping the 300-bed Sanjay Gandhi Hospital at Amethi in Uttar
Pradesh, which was built in 1984. It is a not-for-profit hospital
which Roy would turnaround so that it can carry out 5,000 OPDs per
month and 6,000 surgeries per month.
Even as he heads a corporate hospital, Dr Roy says, "Corporate
hospitals don’t have the reach nor have the inclination to work for
the people of the hinterland.
If I can create two-three hospitals to serve the rural people that
would really satisfy me."
Dr Roy has been instrumental in conceptualising and implementing
Asia’s biggest telemedicine initiative, ‘Integrated Telemedicine &
Telehealth Project’ (ITTP).
This network not only covers the entire length and breadth of the
Indian subcontinent, but also extends to other countries like Mauritius
and Malaysia. "The seed of telemedicine was sowed when I used to go
for camps in rural places and found that there was an acute need for
strong communications," he says.
"I was in Kolkata working with the Rabindranath Centre and there
I thought about telemedicine as a bridge between the rural health
centres to the main hospitals in the city, as putting up more hospital
beds and clinics is obviously not the answer," he adds.
Telemedicine – doctors advising treatment over the video – will help
a general practitioner in a remote area to hook up with an expert
in a more advanced urban centre. The virtual clinic is the only way
out, he says. It is about taking knowledge to people who need it,
adds Roy. The idea is to create knowledge centres.
"Telemedicine has been made possible in the country by the
Government. The Central Government provides satellites connectivity
and State Governments give their hospitals. I feel that public-private
partnership can reform the existing healthcare scenario," professes
Roy.
He further says there are two major problems in the country: that
is health is either inaccessible or unaffordable. For making it
accessible, Roy says telemedicine is the answer and for making it
affordable only micro-health insurance can help.
Influences In Life
Roy has been greatly influenced by Mother Teresa with whom he
interacted on a daily basis while in Kolkata.
Her compassion and worldly views had an indelible impression on
him. "She was an intelligent lady," he says. The Father of the Nation
Mahatma Gandhi is his role model. "Here was a man who could have
anything he wanted but he chose to forsake everything," Roy says
and adds that, "There was a streak of detachment in him that’s very
important for everyone to have if you want to do great things."
His father, who is also his role model, was democratic in every way
and let his children decide and be whatever they wanted to be. "I
have learnt to be patient and non-judgmental from him," informs Roy.
Achievements
In physical sense and material gainsterms, the hospitals he built
and the accolades he won could be called his achievements. However,
for Dr Roy it is the people who linked with him and gained from him
made him feel very proud and contented with their achievements. And
he had mentored many a protege in his illustrious career. "There’s an
indescribable pride I feel deep inside me upon seeing their success,"
he says. Incidentally, Dr Roy is the only person to have built 17
hospitals in the country.
Time Off
Roy loves to go to hill stations for vacations with family. He has two
sons; the elder one is studying medicine at Stanley Medical College,
Madras and the younger one is in class 11 in Delhi. His wife works for
spastics children. He says, "My soul is trapped in the hills." Every
year, for two weeks or so, he goes for trekking in the hills.
He likes to listen to old Hindi songs, but falls asleep after hearing
the first line. He has such busy schedule that he can fall asleep
in a fraction of seconds. "I don’t watch movies and have no clue
about actors or actresses," says he. Interestingly, he goes for a
morning walk every morning and walks 3.5 kilometers. He also enjoys
horse riding.
Ambitions
Since Roy loves the hills, he feels for the people of the hills and
dreams of building a small 50-bed hospital and training facility
for the people of Uttaranchal. He also harbours another ambition
of bringing skill enhancements into rural health practitioners like
other traditional practitioners and even quacks.
"They consist of a good 50 per cent of the healthcare providers
besides the Homeopathy, Ayurveda etc. And since we can’t wish them
away, it is better to tell them about good and bad practices so they
would be careful while dealing with patients like washing hands,
knowledge of medicines knowledge etc," says Roy.
"Whenever I visit the hills the resolve gets stronger to do something
for them," he says assiduously. He is working 24×7 and doesn’t get
tired because as he says, "No one gets a second chance in life so
live every moment to the fullest." And if given a chance, he would
live the same life all over again.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress
