HEALTH CARE

HELMING

HEALTH CARE

With power comes responsibility. Preetha Reddy, Managing director of Apollo Hospitals, talks about her life and times in an exclusive with Akhila Krishnamurthy

     Everyday, across Apollo Hospitals in all coners of India - Hyderabad, Mumbai, Ahmedabad, Chennai,Kolkata,Bangalore and Bilaspur and that is just to name a few - as many as 1,000 patients are anaesthetized. That is, two jump jets full of people. Over the last 26 years since this medical institution found its humble origin and grew rapidly to revolutionise the world of healthcare, as many as 18 million patients have been treated in its premises. Currently, there are 8,000 beds across the many hspitals of Apollo in the country. And amidst the cacophony that is characteristic of any large hospital, Preetha reddy, the hospital's managing director is sitting very calmly in her plush office in Chennai, from where she gets a stunning view of the city's skyline. The morning sun sashaying into the room, probably adds to years, we hope to double that number - from 8,000 beds to 16,000. "

                 It isn't easy being Preetha Reddy, daughter of the visionary. Dr. Prathap Reddy who founded Apollo Hospitals, and who is at ahe helm of a healthcare enterprise of this size and magnitude. she knows that. for years now, Preetha has never turned off jher mobile.

                        "I sleep with the phone next to me. You never know who might need me in the dark of the night, " she says as a preamble to our forty minute long interview, "To tell you the truth, a career in healthcare, is very absorbing. But then, I must confess that I don't know or understand any other vertical or industry. And now, having been part of it this long, I feel responsible for a juge number of people - a million patients who trust our instinct and expertise to cure, the stream of doctors and paramedics, the 65,000 employees who toil tirelessly through day and night, our many stakeholders...It's a long list. "

             The eldest among the four daughters of Dr Reddy. Preetha avers the journey hasn't always been smooth: "Being the boss' daughter doesn't always help in healthcare, " she says. "In fact, my father would keep saying. "If the hospital has a million bricks, we've had a million challenges.' "But in her own way, she has found her feet and is tenaciously carrying forward the group's underlying philosophy - uncompromising care and a happy marriage of medical care and hospitality. On March 5, Apollo Hospitals in augurated its state-of-the-art hospital in Bhubaneshwar. "Over the years, "she observes, "we've built a kind of loyalty among people from all corners of India. Our hospital in Bilaspur, for instance, is a huge success. "

          As a south Indian woman and one who is extremely graceful - the day we meet her, she is dressed in a red tussar silk saree with a bunch of rice pearls around her neck - Preetha reconnises that like most women from this side of the vindhyas, starting isn't always very easy. "I used to be very shy, reticent even, "she says, "But you learn as you go along: I still remember how if more than two people came into my room, I'd want to run away, I've come a long way since. "

           Credit for that must go to her spiritual leanings. "I owe that to my parents, "she says humbly, talking of her belief in a universal god,"I'm hoping to become less ritualistic and not stress as much about many unanswered questions because somehow I feel that a supreme being seems to be leading me always in the right direction. "And then, daily, before she wraps up for the day, Preetha goes on a round of the hospital, taling to her patients, instilling in them a sense of hope, assurance and the promise of "uncompromising care" Guess when you touch lives on that level, it is bound to leave you with a sense of satisfaction. Just look at her face: it shows.