How Prathap Chandra Reddy propelled Apollo Hospitals into a new orbit

The struggle that he went through in setting up a private health care facility in the India of the 1980s is part of folklore

At a party to celebrate Apollo 11’s landing on the moon back in 1969, a young Dr Prathap C Reddy realised that around 40 per cent of NASA’s manpower at the time were Asians, of which the majority were Indians. But he was not aware that Apollo would be the name he would choose for his dream health care mission, too.

In 1983, when he was zeroing in on a name for his Chennai hospital, his daughter Suneeta Reddy (the current managing director) suggested the name Apollo, the Greek god of healing. However, selecting the name of a venture at the age of 50 was far easier for Reddy than overcoming the bureaucratic bottlenecks that any new investor in India faced back then.

To secure loans for health care was not easy, and medical items were treated as luxury products and attracted high import duties. It was his meetings with Indira Gandhi to get proposals cleared for his first hospital that proved to be a turning point. After several trips, he secured all the required permits, and the then President, Giani Zail Singh, inaugurated the first hospital in Chennai in 1983.

Later, it was Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi who pushed banks and institutions to fund more hospitals, which facilitated Apollo’s expansion. The struggle he went through is part of folklore now, but the reason for it is less known.

“In December 1979, I lost a 38-year-old patient to heart disease. He was not able to travel abroad for better treatment because he could not afford it. This incident changed my thinking. I decided to establish a world-class health care organisation designed to suit the needs of our people,” says Reddy, founder and chairman of Apollo Hospitals Group and recipient of the Padma Vibhushan, India’s second-highest civilian award.

Initially, getting more professionals on board to run the hospital was a challenge. “It was professionals who joined us over the years who helped us match international standards,” he adds. Today, the hospital has done more cardiac surgeries than Cleveland Clinic, an Ohio (US)-based non-profit medical centre that is over 100 years old. “Some years ago, when I went to Mayo Clinic, I got a bunch of flowers from them for overtaking them on transplants. Today, we are far ahead and either equal to or better than them. ”

In addition, while the cost of surgery was $50,000 in the US, it was kept at $5,000 by Apollo Hospitals in India from day one, and at $3,000 for lower-income groups. “Our outcomes are better than international players at 99.3 per cent, with a one-year survival of over 98 per cent, at lower cost,” Reddy adds.

Today, Apollo Hospitals has the largest health care network in India, with over 12,000 beds across more than 70 hospitals, a retail chain of over 3,400 pharmacies, over 90 primary care clinics, 150 diagnostics centres, and 15 medical education centres and research foundations.

On competition

Reddy believes that with more to be done in the Indian health care sector, growth of other hospital groups should not be seen as competition. “With Covid, it was proven that the international standards brought in by players like Apollo helped us tide over the crisis.”

“Health care cannot be done only by Apollo. The day when we say that everybody gets health care, only then can we say that there is competition. Today, the demand is higher than the provision of health care, so there is no competition.”

Reddy recalls an incident that brought tears to the eyes of Bill Clinton, former US president, when he witnessed the first satellite telemedicine consultation during a visit to Apollo Hospital in Hyderabad. He saw a doctor examining a village child with heart disease and assuring her that “she will lead a normal life.” Reddy recalls Clinton telling him, that “the rest of the world should follow your lead.”

Reddy believes that Indian health care has come a long way, and says Covid has changed the world: “The way Covid was handled is testimony to Indian health care, whether public or private. The way intensive care was monitored, people were treated, is an example in itself of the technical expertise of Indian health care.”

He agrees with the World Economic Forum’s prediction that non-communicable diseases (NCDs) will be the biggest threat to the world. Heart disease, cancer, diabetes, obesity and mental illness may lead to 80 per cent of deaths by the end of 2030, according to reports.

“What is more threatening is that it would cost the world $30 trillion and India $4 trillion. By 2030, it will be more than 50 per cent of our GDP. Can we afford that?” he asks, adding that the country should look to increase its health budget and everyone should take insurance. He indicates that the age of heart attacks in India is around 30 to 50, as compared to over 60 in the West. “There was a pandemic a few hundred years ago that altered genes of South Asians, and made us more susceptible to heart disease.”

What’s next?

“We (Apollo) are the only centre in the world, which is in total health. I started pharmacies when nearly 30 per cent of medicines were spurious. In our history of 38 years, not one spurious medicine has been sold in our 4,500-odd pharmacies.”

Reddy envisions that Apollo will need to come up with more centres for cancer and more clinics. “There are four things that this decade has brought us — artificial intelligence (AI), datamatics, robotics and 3D printing. These four, if you can adapt them to health care, can give more precise medicine, better outcomes and detect disease early. This is what we are using and want to use more in our preventive health check-ups,” Reddy says. Apollo, through its pro-health programme and use of AI, has done more than 25 million check-ups so far. Apollo has done tests for 120,000 staff, spouses and adult children, becoming the first such corporate to do so.

Medical tourism

Reddy reiterates that for India a major advantage is that the cost of treatment is less than 10 per cent of the international cost, while clinical outcomes are on a par with international standards. “The most important thing we give with our health care is care and compassion. This will make India an automatic destination if people know about it.”

He says “Heal in India” should be publicised globally. “We should promote medical tourism. There are some patients whom I direct to opt for Ayurveda for specific treatments.”

Reddy is also looking to expand Apollo’s presence to more countries and is in the process of setting up hospitals in Bangladesh (Chittagong), Ethiopia, and Uzbekistan, among other countries. “India should be present everywhere and bring people back home, as we have clinical expertise here.”

On the future

“My advice is to take the up challenge of future health — non-communicable diseases and preventable diseases. For this, the mantra is preventive medicine and how we can train each other,” he says. He believes that India has a huge opportunity in the global workforce and by the end of 2030, there are likely to be 42 million health care job vacancies, which India can fill through its workforce.

“If you train them, 80 per cent could go abroad and 20 per cent will fill our health care needs. That means remittances back home will increase the level of our people’s life,” he says.

“We can do everything for the world by giving them the healthcare required. AI and datamatics will help us to get better outcomes.”

“Today, I look at the world and say you can heal in India.”