Nation Wide Revolution of Healthcare

Social entrepreneurship, with an economically sustainable model, NationWide Primary Healthcare Services (NationWide) is a pioneering chain of general practitioner (GP) and paediatric clinics headquartered in Bangalore. Started in March 2010 as a new-age primary healthcare service provider, the company was co-founded by two eminent doctors, Dr Santanu Chattopadhyay and Dr Shantanu Rahman. The primary care chain with clinics in Indiranagar, Whitefield and now in Koramangala, was recently declared the “Most Innovative Primary Healthcare Services In Bangalore” by Big Brands Research Group at the Brands Academy Karnataka Service Excellence 2011 Awards.

With their third round of funding around the corner, the organisation intends to raise up to $ five – ten million from Venture Capital’s for further expansion. The organisation’s growth strategy over the next 18 months is to open 15 more centres in Bangalore and simultaneously launch services in Gurgaon and Kolkata with two or three clinics in these cities. Dr Santanu Chattopadhyay, CEO and MD, Nationwide talks about the company in conversation with M Neelam Kachhap

Please tell us briefly about NationWide Primary Healthcare Services.

NationWide Primary Healthcare Services also called (NationWide) is a pioneering chain of primary care clinics headquartered in Bangalore. Incepted in March 2010 as a new-age primary healthcare service provider, the company was co-founded by two eminent doctors, Dr Santanu Chattopadhyay (MD, MRCP-UK, MBA-INSEAD, France) and Dr Shantanu Rahman (MRCGP-UK, CCTGP-UK).

Prime focus of the organisation is on proactive management of every day ailments and chronic disease conditions (diabetes, hypertension, asthma, etc.,) aimed at preventing illness, detecting critical illness in early stages and effectively managing chronic conditions. The chain of clinics also offer healthcare packages to corporate entities and gated communities.

NationWide attempts to replicate the good old practices of a family doctor by adopting a patient-centric approach, which is based on a trusted relationship between the doctor and his patient. Every subscribed member is provided with a “personal physician” who is the one point-of-contact for all their medical needs. This avoids consulting different doctors/specialists at different points in time and reduces healthcare costs to a large extent. The doctors at NationWide give detailed information about the medical diagnosis, treatment regimen, progress and preventive advice, thereby enabling patients to take informed decisions about their health. Patients who subscribe to NationWide’s services also benefit from a 24/7 access to their doctor or to an On-Call doctor who knows them and their family well enough, thereby, ensuring immediate as well as appropriate medical intervention.

The NationWide GP follows up with the specialist and coordinates post-consultation care, thus avoiding unnecessary repeat visits to the specialist. Patients’ medical records are maintained online in a structured electronic format (which includes compilation of various medical events and facts such as previous or existing diagnoses, investigation reports, treatment and allergies, family history of certain illnesses, etc.) that can be accessed by the patient or their doctor from anywhere in the world. The easy-to-access medical summary can be a lifesaver in case of emergencies and ensures continuity of medical care with any consulting doctor.

NationWide, aspires to build a strong career track for GPs in India placing them on par with their peers in other professional fields in terms of job satisfaction, remuneration, and personal development. This reduces economic compulsions on the practicing GP, thereby ensuring ethical medical practice and high quality service to the patients.

What is the rationale behind launching this company?

The experience of working in the NHS was an eye-opener for both doctors, who quickly realised the importance of the primary care general practice in the British healthcare system and how it was driving better patient care, cost effectiveness, patient-doctor trust, and ensuring continuity of care. General practitioners (GPs) were the first point-of-contact for every individual or their family. Apart from proactively managing their patient’s health, GPs also formed the vital bridge between every day care and specialist intervention, leading to better compliance and health outcomes. A similar system was clearly lacking back home in India.

In terms of healthcare technology and expertise, India is on par with most of the developed countries in the world, yet we have some of the lowest healthcare indicators globally. Public spending on healthcare in India is less than one per cent of our GDP.

Interestingly, it was found that some of the European countries have better healthcare indicators compared to the US, despite spending a much larger fraction of their GDP on healthcare. The difference is in the area of focus! While these countries have a very good primary care system and concentrate on family medicine, the US healthcare system is heavily skewed towards tertiary care. So if we have to improve the healthcare parameters in India, it is important to concentrate more on primary healthcare facilities and preventive health strategies. At the same time, it is important to bring back the trust factor into the doctor-patient relationship, which sadly has seen a spiral downwards due to the rampant commercialisation of healthcare. NationWide was started primarily to address the above unmet needs.

What was the source of funding for the company?

The company sought its first and second round of funds valued at around Rs five crore through angel funding from investors based in the US to begin operations in September 2010.

Please tell us about your present investors.

Our investors are: Bhupen Shah, MS-CICE (Univ of Michigan) Mentor & Advisor and Raghuveer Tarra, BE (CIT), MS (BITS, PILANI) Mentor & Advisor

What are your primary goals?

NationWide, through its concept of “bringing back the family doctor”, aims to revive the age-old family doctor model that worked so well, but has literally disappeared from the Indian healthcare scenario over the past decade. The chain’s primary care clinics focus on bridging the gap between fragmented general practitioner services and highly expensive super-specialist hospital care by creating a single-point of medical care for their patients’ everyday healthcare needs. With an overall objective of ensuring a family doctor for every family in India, Nationwide strives to bring trust, empathy and transparency back into the “doctor-patient” relationship. While NationWide cannot hope to achieve this on its own, the organisation believes that its revolutionary concept will motivate several other healthcare providers to set up similar models and help reach the final goal.

Please tell us about the company's growth.

In the 12 months that we have been operational (since September 2010) NationWide has grown from a single clinic to seven clinics (three full service clinics and four satellite clinics) across Bangalore. We have several hundred registered customers, three corporate clients (satellite clinics), and have grown from four to 37 employees. The company has completed two rounds of fund-raising so far and all this was achieved in less than a year from inception.

Over the next 18 months, our growth strategy clearly enough is to consolidate our position in Bangalore, with establishment of 18 full service clinics (including the current 3 full service clinics) in strategic locations across the city (Bangalore) and then move on to setting up two - three full service clinics each in Kolkata and Gurgaon. Over the next five years, we plan to open around 250 clinics across India. At a later period, we will also be looking to percolate the same services to the rural sector via PPP initiatives. As we have a well chalked out expansion strategy, we shall be going in for our next round of VC funding soon.

What are the challenges faced by you? How do you overcome the challenges?

Rampant commercialisation of healthcare industry has adversely affected service standards offered to the common man, creating a sense of mistrust. Thus winning back the common man’s trust in general practitioners is undoubtedly one of the major challenges faced by organisations like ours.

There is a huge unmet need for easily accessible, everyday medical treatment and counselling aimed at preventing illness, early detection of critical illnesses in early stages and effectively managing chronic conditions. Nationwide thus, strives to bring trust, empathy and transparency back into the “doctor-patient” relationship. The organisation is working towards creating a strong primary healthcare system by reviving the concept of family medicine. This is achieved by providing personalised family physician/general practitioner and paediatrician services and the main focus is on proactive management of every day ailments and chronic disease conditions that can be monitored and treated as an out-patient.

The family physician is ideally placed to practice preventive as well as curative medicine who knows the medical history of every person in the family. Moreover, a single point of medical counsel ensures continuity of care across time.

Another major challenge was to create a well chalked out career path for family physicians, as aspiring doctors do not find practicing as a GP motivating and lucrative enough anymore. This has resulted in more and more medical graduates opting for specialised courses creating a huge dent in the primary healthcare industry. With an objective to address these issues, NationWide provides a continuous learning platform for every doctor on board. Contrary to public perception, general practice requires very specialised skill sets on part of the doctor for a holistic management of their patients. Therefore at NationWide, 10 per cent of the doctors’ time is protected training time, dedicated solely to clinical and soft skills learning. We envision this as the foundation for building a strong career track for general practitioners in India, on par with other specialties in terms of job satisfaction, remuneration, and personal development.

mneelamkachhap@expressindia.com