Dr Aashish Chaudhry, Orthopedic Surgeon and MD, Aakash Healthcare, shares his insights on the upcoming Aakash super speciality patient-centric hospital, which will start its operations in July in an interaction with Prathiba Raju
Why did Aakash Institute, a leading medical and engineering entrance examination coaching institutes, forayed into healthcare genre with the launch of its super speciality hospital?
Aakash Institute has been training students for medical entrance examinations since the last three decades. Over these years, thousands of students transformed themselves into highly capable medical professionals in various specialities. Now, the country’s leading coaching institute is all set to push its boundaries of excellence by making an entry into the healthcare sector with the launch of its state-of-the-art super speciality hospital ‘Aakash Healthcare.’ Stepping into the healthcare sector was planned since the time I entered into medical profession. And the second generation ownership lies with me. The sector has been growing at a phenomenal pace in the last few years and Indian healthcare sector has become a favourite investing option for corporates, investors and VCs. The upcoming super speciality hospital at Dwarka, New Delhi will be a huge relief for the residents, who have been struggling with dismal state of existing medical services.
What facilities will you offer? Which technologies will be implemented and by when it will be operational?
Started with a small clinic in 2011 and within five years, the clinic flourished and became the favourite healthcare brand for residents of Dwarka and surrounding areas. The new hospital will be our next big step in the healthcare segment. Aakash Healthcare is a 230-bedded super speciality hospital. The key specialities include orthopaedics and joint replacement, cardiac sciences, minimal access surgery, nephrology, ophthalmology and critical care medicine. The hospital is equipped with advanced radiology (3T MRI, 128 Slice CT Scanner, DR System), laboratory equipment, pneumatic tube system, automatic waste and laundry management system that adds to the efficiency of hospital operations. Robust IT systems connect the entire facility seamlessly. The hospital is likely to be fully operational by July 2017.
Being one of the well-known medical coaching centres, how much of it has helped you to become one of the trusted brand in the healthcare space?
Aakash Institute being present in the market since the past three decades have established a brand value in the market. The brand value of the parent organisation will help in driving the business and we will continue to deliver the excellence and brand trust. We aspire to become the most desired healthcare brand by providing compassionate, caring and world class services. The hospital will be kindled by same ethics and values that inspire the group. The patients’ satisfaction will be hospital’s avowed aim and will always seek to enhance it.
You are well established name in medical coaching centre with 150 classroom centres, 78 corporate branches and 57 franchise centres and have ties with lakhs of medical professionals. How do you plan to utilise this space?
The Alumni network of Aakash Institute can indeed prove to be a captive source for not only patients but also to hire qualified medical professionals. We are already working on the strategy to tap this vital database. We have planned few initiatives which will help us reach out to this vast pool of patients, professionals and brand ambassadors. ‘Privilege Card’ is one such marketing tool we have designed. It shall be offered to alumni of Aakash Institute as well as the current employees. The card shall offer attractive discounts and wellness packages. We also plan to provide tele-consultation to the people in this network. This will go a long way in providing needy individuals with correct advice and ethical treatment. The person will have an advantage of seeking right advice from anywhere in the country.
Many people trained in our institute have become leading practitioners and surgeons and will be more than willing to renew ties with their alma mater.
Delhi is saturated with corporate hospitals. How will your super speciality hospital be different from others. What will be your USP. Has Dwarka as a location benefited you?
Corporate hospitals are mushrooming at multiple places but as the saying goes, there’s always room at the top. The USP of our hospital will be to provide a patient-friendly environment and cater to the growing needs of the healthcare sector. We are working towards aligning with government’s initiatives; prevention and wellness, digital health, and is also open to PPPs. Dwarka being a fairly new suburb, has ever expanding population base, but there is gross inadequacy of quality healthcare services and healthcare provider. Established in Dwarka since the past five years as trusted clinical service provider, we have established ourselves as a brand, which will obviously help us in establishing our super speciality hospital.
Do you plan to come up with small and medium-sized hospitals in neighbouring cities?
Once the first greenfield project takes off, our focus will be to stabilise the operations. Thereafter, we intend to expand our network by opening satellite clinics, single speciality hospitals in tier-II and III cities. In the ensuing five years, the brand intends to establish four to five small and medium-sized hospitals in neighbouring cities. Aakash Healthcare will emerge as a brand that is transparent, ethical, honest and focussed towards delivering the highest level healthcare services for the community.
How you are trying to scale up the Aakash Institute.
Aakash Institute has been ever expanding and the growth has been phenomenal in last 8-10 years. The number of centres as on today stands at 165. The intent is to reach out to more and more students by providing classroom coaching in comfort of their district or state. Despite so many centres, many students still don’t have an access to classroom coaching. We realised this problem and came up with innovative online products (eg Aakash Tutor) including short-term and long-term courses, teaching videos, online tests etc. Realising the highly competitive environment, we have started foundation classes as well, which focuses on 8-10th standard examinations. Due to the introduction of a unified examination i.e. NEET, a nationwide footprint and vast variety of online products have given an impetus to the business of Aakash Institutes.
Catering to the medical education space, what is your say about NEET examination? Do you think NEET is a much-needed reform for improving the standard of medical education?
NEET examination was one of the most historic step in education industry. It has brought order, transparency, accountability and above all, saved lot of time for all the students.
Public health spending is 1.16 per cent of GDP while the World Health Organisation (WHO) recommends spending five per cent of GDP. National Health Policy 2017 talks about increasing the spending to 2.5 per cent by 2025 but we haven’t met the 2010 target of two per cent of GDP.
What steps would you like to take to achieve it?
Healthcare spending in India is among the lowest as compared to other countries. It is a very important indicator for health of the community. The government must take initiatives to streamline various pending processes and only then we can expect better health for people at large. Universal health coverage and increased public and private partnership will aid in alleviating the dismal state of healthcare services in the country.