The Father of Lithotripsy

He introduced lithotripsy in India in 1986. Today, he runs a chain of 16 super specialty urology centres

Dr Bhim Sen Bansal (73) Chairman & Managing Director RG Stone Urological and Laparoscopy Hospital

Born in 1935 at Delhi, he did MBBS from SMS Medical College, Jaipur and FCGP from Delhi.

Why an entrepreneur?

To reduce suffering of patients with kidney stones, he wanted to introduce a non-invasive procedure so that they do not have ugly scar on their bodies, have minimal requirement of blood transfusion and have no post operative complications. Once he realised that lithotripsy was the answer, he wanted to build an institute which would fulfill his dream.

Before being an entrepreneur

In 1958, he started as a family physician and continued as a successful doctor for 29 years. "I had a daily OPD inflow of 250 to 300 patients. If there was any patient who required tertiary care, I referred him to different hospitals," says he.

The first move

In 1964, he started Bansal Hospital in Sita Ram Bazar Delhi, from where he started practising. This 28-bed Bansal Hospital was an ownership hospital, which had the departments of surgeries, medicine, gynaecology and obstetrics.

It was only in 1987 that he took urology care in India to the next level. When he came to know that Siemens has launched lithotripsy unit, he went all the way to Germany to purchase the equipment. Funding for the equipment, which costed approximately Rs 3 crore, was arranged by bank, relatives and from his own savings.

He decided to install it in Mumbai. "It was a challenge to search for the hospital for installation of the equipment, to promote and to market it. I selected Mumbai because 20 years back it was considered the Mecca of healthcare. I went to Mumbai without having any friends and relatives in Bombay and without exposure to the city," says he.

He wanted to select a hospital in the heart of the city that covered the entire city, which was in vicinity of the airport and main railway station, reputed hotels as he was expecting patients from all over India. His search ended at Mahavir Medical Center which provided him an area for putting the equipment, OPD chambers, manager room and reception on rent. "For marketing this facility, I had to work hard and associate myself with the urologist, surgeons and physician who could send their cases to my hospital for 'kidney stone treatment without surgery," says he. He also had to resort to advertisement, CMEs, articles and free stone check-up camps from Kanyakumari to Srinagar.

Over the years

He has followed the models of JV and ownership to expand pan-India. At present, RG Stone has 16 centres where it has put its own equipment and instruments, faculty members and marketing team. It has two centres in New Delhi, three in Mumbai, two in Kolkata, and one each in Gurgaon Chennai, Agra, Jaipur, Lucknow, Ludhiana, Banglore, Mohali and Goa. Six of these are owned and the rest is the model of Department in Hospital (DIH).

Explaining why he has more of JVs than owned projects, he says, "To start a fully new hospital with urology requires building, pathology department, radiology department and billing— all this comes to a minimum area of 15,000 square feet. This makes it an expensive proposition with equipment only costing Rs 3 crore to 3.5 crore. JVs make the project more viable in terms of cash flow and decreased initial investment."

The group, which has clocked a revenue of Rs 350 million last fiscal, has achieved ISO 9001:2000 certificate for lithotripsy, endourology, holmium laser, laparoscopic surgeries and diagnostics. The company has already raised $10 million equity through ICICI Ventures for further expansion.

Contribution to healthcare

RG Stone has its place in the prestigious Guinness Book of World Records because of treating the largest stone in kidney (13.5 cm). Besides introducing lithotripsy, it is credited with the introduction of 100 watt Holmium Laser, performing laparoscopy-assisted PCNL for a Pelvic Kidney Staghorn; treating youngest patient with stone (nine months), treating the oldest patient with stone (107 years); treating a patient having permanent cardiac pacemaker with stone by lithotripsy. The group has done more than one lakh surgeries till date on patients from India and abroad. "It is the only institute in India to offer all available modalities of stone disease management and all available modalities of prostate disease management under one roof. I call this concept as omnibus urological care," says Dr Bansal.

Awards

The awards that he has been conferred with are Dhanwantri Award, AadharShila Award, Rashtriya Gaurav Award, 21st Century Excellence Award, Great Son of India Award from Research Council for outstanding achiever and for 'Outstanding Contribution' from Geriatric Society of India.

Fears and apprehensions

Doctors were skeptical about lithotripsy equipment. "Interestingly, the acceptance of patients was higher than the medical fraternity," says he. Dr Bansal was thus afraid whether other doctors would send patients to him. "I had never gone to other doctors for sending the cases to my hospital. As a practitioner, urologist, surgeons, pathologists, orthopaedics and gynaecologist used to come to me for referrals. Now, the tables were turned," says he.

Overcoming roadblocks

"There were no particular roadblocks as the whole project was taken as a commitment to millions of patients of kidney stone," says he.

Mistakes made and lessons learnt

"No particularly mistakes were made," he thinks.

Any formal degree in management?

No. "Whenever there is truth in your work, people are bound to be hypnotised," says he philosophises.

Tips for entrepreneurship

"One needs to have vision, mission, passion, truthfulness, dedication, planning, commitment and intuition to take calculative risks," he firmly believes.

Way ahead

It is planning to have 10 more new centres in the coming two years. "I want to reach out to the deepest part of my country and treat patients at an affordable cost and make them aware about the minimal access surgery procedures," says he.

An entrepreneur he admires in healthcare

“Dr Prathap C Reddy, the one who believed in professional management and brought corporate culture in healthcare,” says he.