The Legacy of Apollo Hospitals & Dr Prathap C Reddy - A Look Back with Historian Sriram V. Apollo Hospitals is the leading ...

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The Legacy of Apollo Hospitals &amp; Dr Prathap C Reddy - A Look Back with Historian Sriram V

Pioneer Game Changer path breaker innovator disruptor there are so many terms that we use so often to Define any individual or organization that has had a huge impact on an entire ecosystem or industry today I'm going to take you on the Journey of one such pioneering individual and his organization which made a tremendous change not just for Chennai the city not just for India but perhaps all over the world and that is the story of Dr Pratap SI Redi and his Apollo hospitals let us see what this journey was all [Music] about a study has recently shown that by 2028 the world medical tourism industry will be 58 billion US in terms of value and India as a country will occupy the 10th position in it and within India Chennai as a city accounts for 40% of the entire country's medical tourism income what is it that makes Chennai a medical tourism Capital there are of course certain very historic factors and then there are certain later developments which have contributed to this let us see what that journey is all about this status of Chennai as a medical tourism Capital was not one overnight it was a journey that began in the 17th century the British came here in 1639 and by 1640 had constructed what they would call Fort St George and within a couple of years they had established a hospital here one that would eventually grow into what we recognize today as the Rajiv Gandhi Memorial General Hospital located on Punam Mal High Road it had its origins in the 1640s can you believe it thereafter came several great Institutes ions like The Institute of Mental Health in kilo The Institute of Obstetrics and Gynecology and then the regional Institute of oftalmology and much later several other hospitals like the kasturba Gandhi Memorial Hospital the Stanley hospital and the kilo Medical Hospital all of these would make Chennai a center for medical treatment in 1835 The Madras Medical College was established and then in the 20th century two other great medical colleges the Standley Medical College and the kilo Medical College would come up these in turn would make tenai a Center for Medical Education all of this meant that the city was well on its way to becoming recognized as a great Center for Medicine by the 1970s several specialized medical institutions had come up in the city the Cancer Institute of course has a history that goes back several years before that but by the 1970s we had many more coming in the perambur railway Hospital a very historic institution had by then begun to Pioneer cardiac surgeries and so Chennai as I said earlier was well established but then in every industry there comes a certain point of inflection a certain moment when the trajectory of growth ceases to be flat and begins to move up exponentially there is usually a catalyst who contributes to this and that is the story of Dr PC RI and Apollo hospitals born on February 5th 1933 to ragava and shakuntala Redi Pratap SI Redi as his name suggests came from a traditional Andra family he came to Madras in the 1950s in order to study medicine at the Stanley Medical College and then having graduated and having got married to sucharita in 1963 he decided to move to the United States of America returning to India in 1970 he joined hm Hospital a now defunct health facility that at that point of time function from St Mary's Road in South Madras here he became very well known as a charismatic doctor dealing in cardiology problems and a man who had the healing touch he had made a name for himself as a doctor he was popular he was a pillar of Madras Society he need not have asked for more but Dr Eddie had a dream and that was to ensure that a multip speciality hos hospital was set up in the city where treatment for various kinds of ailments could be had Under One Roof this was an impossibility in the 1970s at that point of time nearly all the hospitals in the city as well as in the country were either run by the government or by charitable institutions and each one of them had their own areas of specialization and there was a problem of availability the Indian population was growing and we did not have sufficient number of hospitals to take care of the number of people who were coming in for treatment that was the time of the controlled economy India was a country on the Socialist model and it tried to cater to its ever increasing Demand by managing with less and less across all Industries healthare was no different it was left to Dr Edy to change this scenario can you believe it that at that time medical industry was not one of those that was allowed Bank funding under government of India rules this had to change if Dr Redd's dream had to become reality he had to move Heaven and Earth in order to make this happen the only person who was really empowered to make a change by way of national legislation was the Prime Minister of India shrimati Indira Gandhi Dr redy used all his contacts and never gave up and finally reached a situation where he could meet with Mrs Gandhi and explain the situation to her ministers in her cabinet who had foresight such as pranab mukarji and R wenat rahan both of whom would become presidents of India later were able to see the wisdom in what Dr red was saying and they became champions of his cause the legislation was changed and Bank financing was made available for starting private hospitals this was not all Heavy import Duty was imposed those days by way of conserving foreign exchange on medical equipment and if you needed high quality medical equipment you had to Source it abroad in the 1970s once again Dr Ry had to make all the efforts that were necessary to change that as well finally his efforts bore fruit and import Duty was reduced on medical equipment all was in place by 1983 when the first of the Apollo hospitals would be inaugurated in a place that would eventually become a landmark for itself graes Lane egmore the inauguration was by Nani Z Singh the then president of India it was an institution like no other people began to flock to it not just from within the city but from all over the country the story could have ended there a doctor building a multi- super Speciality Hospital and getting on with life but it just did not stop with that Dr Eddie began to look at the availability of medicines the first of the Apollo pharmacies came up in 1983 in mandav and in what was a remarkable achievement in that relaxed era 1,000 pharmacies were opened under the brand name of Apollo within the next 1,000 days by 2013 large format stores under the same name had started and recently 5,000 such stores have come into existence which is a remarkable achievement indeed how often have we heard in manufacturing industry that preventive maintenance is always better than breakdown maintenance Dr Reddy began to ponder over as to why this could not be extended to the medical field as well as early as in 1972 when the renowned pathologist Dr David garlic came from the United States of America in order to help set up a pathology facility at the HM Hospital Dr redy had come up with this idea and with the setting up of Apollo hospitals he gave full freedom for making this a reality on June 13th 1983 the master Health checkup program began at Apollo hospitals and by July 27th of the same year it had become formalized into a smooth process countless lives were saved the this way because people could come and find out what was wrong with them before disaster struck and it changed the way an entire generation and succeeding Generations after that began to look at Healthcare this in 2019 mofed into Pro Health an individualized Health checkup program using artificial intelligence and then in 2023 came Pro Health Zen which is the next generation of it using Cutting Edge technology today Apollo is Asia's foremost Integrated Health Care services provider and has a presence spanning hospitals pharmacies primary care and diagnostic clinics together with several retail Health models it also has tele medicine facilities across several countries what is medical service if it is not available when needed a Apollo began building its chain of hospitals across the country beginning with the second of the hospitals in Hyderabad today there are 74 hospitals across the country in 2002 Apollo pioneered a revolution in rapid response Services by launching its Nationwide emergency number 1066 in 2013 it launched Total Health India's first integrated rural healthc Care Service delivery Network work in 2015 came Apollo care which brings care to the homes the Apollo 24 bar7 app was launched in 2020 such a pioneering institution and its founder would naturally have several recognitions and Awards coming their way in 1991 Dr PC RI was conferred India's third highest civilian award the padmabhushan and in 2010 he received the Padma vibhushan in 2014 his biography titled the Healer was released and in 2023 Amar chitra Kata brought out a pictorial biography on the occasion of his 90th birthday in 2024 when Dr redy entered his 91st year Apollo hospitals put up a commemorative wall tracing the Journey of the hospital from inception to now at its graes Road premises Apollo hospitals has also had several postage stamps released in its honor we as residents can truly take pride that such a pioneering institution grew up in our midst its greatest achievement of course is the countless lives that it has saved over the years quickly following that is the manner in which it pushed up the bar as as far as quality of Medicare is concerned all across the country truly the history of medical treatment in India can be bracketed into two eras before Apollo and after Apollo came into existence and to imagine that all of that was in this city of Madras that is Chennai

Dr.

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