Vishal Bali, who has proven his managerial skills at a very young age, is successfully steering the operational activities of the Wockhardt Hospitals Group, as its vice president. Started in Bangalore 16 years ago, Wockhardt Heart Hospital has become a symbol of quality in cardiac care. The group has embarked on a major expansion spree with a number of new hospitals coming up in different parts of the country. In an exclusive interview with R BabyManoj, he speaks about the ambitious plans of Wockhardt Heart Hospitals to emerge amongst the most preferred cardiac care destinations in the world.

With a burgeoning economy and growing population, India touts to become a super power in the year 2020. Wockhardt hospitals have been in existence for more than a decade. In this backdrop, what are Wockhardt's expansion plans in the health sector in the coming years?

The opening up of economy and the changed perspective of the government towards healthcare segment, provide tremendous potential for growth of any institution like ours. We are on a massive expansion mode currently. Wockhardt started two heart hospitals in Hyderabad, which got operational on the 15th of July this year. There are 300 beds in the Hyderabad hospital, exclusively in the area of cardiology and cardiac surgery. It is a joint venture with the Kamineni group of hospitals, which currently runs three hospitals. The group is basically into medical education and health care in Andhra Pradesh. They were seeking an association with the hospital's group which has focused on cardiology and cardiac surgery and sought our expertise. With this presence in Hyderabad, we have created a benchmark in establishing Wockhardt as a dominant provider in cardiology and cardiac surgery across the country. Our heart hospitals now have presence in Mumbai, Bangalore, Nagpur and Hyderabad with plans unde r execution in Kolkata and Delhi. Wockhardt Heart Hospitals now have a pan India presence.

What is the amount of investment you have made for expansion into Hyderabad along with Kamineni group?

Since it is a joint venture and Wockhardt hospital is a stand alone subsidiary, the investment details are confidential.

Could you explain the stakeholding pattern between the two partners in the project? Do you expect synergies between such healthcare groups to happen in a big way in the near future?

It is quite different from the conventional sense of business partnership. It is a participative model of expertise and infrastructure between us and the Kamineni group. I see a tremendous interest among healthcare service providers to collaborate and associate in order to share certain key strengths, competencies and specialties. In cardiology and cardiac surgery, we have become partners for various organisations. We have gained 16 years of learning in this area and can make valuable contributions to our associates. That, in turn, helps us in many ways to expand the reach of high quality cardiology and cardiac surgery to the community. The country would witness more such joint ventures between different health service providers.

Could you explain more about the hospital project coming up in Bangalore?

It is a 400 bed hospital on the Bannerghatta road with cardiology/cardiac surgery as the front runner speciality. Similar to our Mumbai hospital, we will have a cluster of other focused super specialities with orthopedics, neurosciences, critical care and looking at the profile of Bangalore population. We are creating a very contemporary Wockhardt Women's Hospital.

The project is a cluster of different hospitals. In fact, we started this concept in Mumbai, which is doing very well. Bangalore is the second city where we bring the same concept. Of the total 400 beds, 200-250 would be dedicated to cardiology. Between these two hospitals (Wockhardt Heart Hospital at Cunningham road and the new unit at Bannerghata), we will provide 350 beds for cardiology and cardiac surgery in Bangalore alone. With this, we will emerge as the largest cardiac care provider in India. This hospital will be functional in early 2006.

How much money are you pumping in for this project? Could you tell us about the employment opportunities which would be generated because of this hospital cluster?

The entire outlay for the Bangalore project is close to Rs. 140-150 crore. Direct employment will be provided to 2000 people apart from 300 consultants.

What are your plans of expansion elsewhere in the country?

We are expanding across the country. We are starting another 250-bed hospital in Kolkata, which would again be focussed on cardiology and cardiac surgery besides urology and nephrology. Work has already started. Kolkata was our natural choice because we already have a kidney hospital there. We are the largest provider of urology and nephrology services in the whole of East India. This makes us more dominant in that particular specialty. Plus, the cardiac care services in which we are a national leader put us in a unique position.

What is the total outlay for Wockhardt hosptials expansion plans?

As sometime back our chairman H Khorakiwala outlined in his vision for Wockhardt hospitals, basically our entire outlay would be Rs 500 crores in the next four to five years.

Did your association with Harvard Medical International (HMI) help in achieving the status of an international healthcare provider?

HMI, the international arm of Harvard Medical School has definitely given us the global benchmark for quality standards in healthcare processes. We have been setting global benchmarks in pioneering new advancements in cardiology and cardiac surgery over the last 16 years. The association with HMI has helped us standardise our processes further across the clinical, nursing and patient satisfaction protocols. Our Mumbai hospital is working with HMI to get JCI accreditation. The Harvard association has been instrumental in the confidence that international patients exhibit in our hospitals. Our heart hospitals are the preferred provider for angioplasties and bypass surgeries for patients from the UK.

How do you see competition from hospitals like Columbia Asia who has had a recent entry into Bangalore?

Columbia Asia is not a tertiary care provider, hence not our competitor. It is a secondary care provider. They are not looking at cardiology and cardiac surgery. Wockhardt is a tertiary care provider. On the other hand, we want more secondary care hospitals like Columbia to come up, which would be complementary to the work we are doing. It is a positive development that organised healthcare is evolving. It will provide us an opportunity to collaborate with the secondary care providers and create a kind of seamlessness in the quality of health care.

Indigenous stent makers rue that Indian heart hospitals are averse to quality stents made in India. Please comment.

Until and unless any product is backed by good clinical trials, to ensure that it is effective and that stringent quality standards are met during manufacture, it won't be possible for hospitals like Wockhardt to accept such products. Since we are an associate of Harvard Medical International and being a global player, from our perspective, quality of a product or service we use has to be of global standards.

Are you into clinical trials for pharmaceutical products?

Currently none of our hospitals are involved in any clinical trials.

Are Indian hospitals, especially those in Bangalore, equipped enough to receive a (probable) heavy inflow of international patients as touted by many quarters?

The required clinical expertise is already with us. Indian clinical talent is respected across the globe, many Indian super specialist doctors settled abroad are making a choice to come back and join Wockhardt Hospitals in India. In many ways, a reversal is happening and we are proud to be a participant in making this reversal happen. Hospitals and clinicians in other parts of the world are looking at training opportunities at Wockhardt in India. We have been training cardiologists and cardiac surgeons from China and other countries. Our cardiac team has pioneered and innovated some of the procedures now on a global platform. The first awake heart surgery in the world and a series of more than 350 patients with this approach has been instrumental in 13 International publications. That itself positions us very dominantly in the rest of the world.

Please tell us about your telemedicine project with ISRO.

Wockhardt was one of the initial hospitals to start the telemedicine activity. Our entire telemedine network is under the name of 'Heart connect'. We provide telemedicine services to and connectivity with medical colleges as part of our educational initiatives. Our Intensive Cardiac Care Unit (ICCU) is connected through telemedicine network with the ICCUs of a number of secondary care providers. We also use our telemedicine connectivity to ensure that our consultants-both cardiologists and cardiac surgeons - are able to provide a 24/7 care to our patients. They can log on to the entire intensive e-care network of Wockhardt hospitals from anywhere in the world.

Do you have any association with the government medical colleges in telemedicine?

Yes, we do have in Goa. We are able to provide this as a platform to both the government and private medical colleges.

Are you a part of any such youth initiative focussed on improving the health of the nation?

As chairman of the CII Young Indians' National Health Care committee, I am conceptualising a model to involve the younger generation in the healthcare delivery process. All of us in this initiative are below 40. This is the younger group of individuals trying to make some difference. CII young Indians body which is basically looking at younger generation across different industries is trying to create a forum to create new avenues where younger group of individuals within the healthcare sector try and make a difference.

What is the scope of government-private partnership in making India healthier?

In our country, 65 per cent of the beds are in the government sector. While 68 per cent of the medical professionals are working in the private sector, the government is slowly realising the fact that the mantle of healthcare has to be in the private sector, in certain areas. The new framework that is coming up is giving more responsibility to the private sector.

Health insurance is the driver in ensuring that a country has a good health coverage. McKinsey studies show being a low GDP country, ensuring increased private sector participation is the only way to make strides in the health sector. The fear that private sector is going to be costly is out of place. There are many instances, where government owned super-specialty hospitals are accessed by effluent people, in effect, deserving poor getting deprived off.