Mohali’s Pride

In 2001, he started Indus Hospital Group with a 30-bed secondary care hospital. Today, the group runs two hospitals in Mohali, one rural charitable hospital, one diagnostic centre and two super-speciality dental centres

Dr Ramandeep Singh (30) Managing Director, Indus Hospital

Born on 5th July 1978 at Talwara, a small town in Punjab, Dr Ramandeep Singh did bachelor of dental surgery from Bharatividya Peeth Dental College, Pune.

Why an entrepreneur?

When he was working as an intern in a Government institute, he realised there is a widening gap that exists in the healthcare market in Mohali in providing quality healthcare at reasonable costs. "That time, I planned to start a private hospital, immediately after finishing my internship," says he.

He wanted to gift Mohali a state-of-the-art health facility which will set benchmark in ethics and healthcare. "In the beginning of this decade there was a dearth of private medical facilities in Mohali and people had to visit Chandigarh for treatment of minor ailments. I wanted to fill that gap," adds Dr Singh.

Besides, his parents are doctors (father being a surgeon and mother a gynaecologist) with their practice in a small town in district Ferozpur. "So running hospital was always in my blood," he says.

Before becoming an entrepreneur

In 2000, he joined Government General Hospital in Mohali and worked there for a year. His practice and entrepreneurship started together, as he started a multi-speciality hospital, after qualifying from his dental college. "I still run my practice in dental department in our hospital, but only twice a week. Our dental department now has seven full-time doctors and is one of the busiest in the region. It has been branded separately from our hospital-we call it Centre for Integrated Dentistry and Maxillo-facial Surgery," he informs.

The first move

It was during his BDS that he firmed up his mind to start on his own. "I knew if I started early in age, I would always have a competitive advantage. In college, I started putting final touches to the next career move that could see us morph into respected regional healthcare provider," he says.

During his posting at the Government hospital, he started working on his first hospital in Chandigarh. He started the 30-bed hospital by revamping an old building which was owned by his family. This secondary care hospital was commissioned in July 2001. The initial project cost of around Rs 1.5 crore in 2001 (excluding the cost of land and basic building which was already existing). "The funding was provided from public sector bank and from savings from parents. With this amount, we could only make secondary care hospital without all the diagnostic equipment," says Dr Singh.

Later, this secondary care hospital was upgraded into 50-bed multispecialty services complete with high end ICU, diagnostic facilities.

Over the years

By July 2001, the group started a 30-bed rural charitable hospital in Mohali. In year 2004, Dr Singh got land for building the third hospital in the same city through Government auction. "We were planning to build the hospital in collaboration with one of the bigger chains of hospitals in India, but as it did not materialise, we started of our own," he informs. He acknowledges that Government incentive of income tax rebate for five years for hospitals of 100 beds or more was a major fillip.

Between year 2003 and 2007, the group started two dental clinics and one diagnostic centre. Keeping up with the policy of providing the entire gamut of medical services under one roof, a full-fledged diagnostic facility was commissioned at the Indus Hospital, Phase 3B 2 in 2005. When inaugurated, it was the first independent diagnostic centre in Mohali with a Helical CT Scan. Besides, providing services to the two Indus Hospitals in Mohali, the diagnostic centre gets a large number of referrals from other hospitals.

"All these projects were funded by internal accruals and by long-term project finance by public sector banks, the ratio of debt and equity of the group is 1:1 now. So, we can still leverage our balance sheet to start more projects," says he.

"We started with turnover of about Rs 50 lakh in 2001 and now we would have around Rs 12 crore by the end of this financial year," he adds.

Fears and apprehensions

The fears that nagged him were that of arranging and retaining good and senior doctors and mobilising funds to sustain the project. "I was also worried about whether people would pay for better facilities," says he. "Affordability issue was sorted out up to certain extent after popularisation of health insurance," says he.

Overcoming roadblocks

Recruiting apt people and building the right team for the company and turning the enterprise into professional business were the major roadblocks. "You always overcome obstacle if you think you can. The big challenge is your own imagination," he thinks.

Mistakes made and lessons learnt

"The biggest mistake is that initially we as a group thought small, the effort or the pain is same whatever the scale of business. So, always think big," he says on an optimistic note.

Any formal degree in management?

No, but he ensures that he attends all short-term courses which would enhance his management skills. "I think it would have been better if I had any management qualification with my medical degree, but is not entirely necessary to start hospital as there are many thing which you learn on the job," says he.

Tips for entrepreneurship

"Fairness, transparency and ethical working style is the key to making it to a successful entrepreneur. Also build a great team, empower your people, share your wealth and expand relentlessly," says he.

The road ahead

It is integrating both backward and forward by starting a dental college, a nursing college for which the land has already been bought. He is also planning to make fourth hospital, a 100-bed facility, costing around Rs 30 crore in Himachal Pradesh. This project would be commissioned by end of 2010. He is also keen on PPPs in Himachal Pardesh, Uttaranchal, Haryana and Punjab for new hospitals.

An entrepreneur that he admires in healthcare

“Dr Prathap Reddy for making the largest healthcare company in South-East Asia and for his vision,” he opines.