Preetha Reddy, vice-chairperson, Apollo Hpspitals, and I have been trying to schedule a lunch for several months now. She has been travelling almost all the time; so she once suggests that a dinner would be more convenient, after she is done with the day. After going back and forth for weeks, we finally decide on a home-cooked meal at her house, late one evening.
I wait for her in her elegant living room, on whose walls are mounted striking paintings by Anjolie Ela Menon and Syed Haider Raza, among others. She joins me soon and we are served tender coconut water. I ask Preetha about her art collection. Artists Farhan Mujib and Datta Bansode also find space on her walls, a stark contrast to her austere hospital office. ‘’I love abstract art,’’ she says. ‘’I don’t like faces staring at me in my drawing room. You won’t find an M F Husain or a Tyeb Mehta on my walls, mostly emerging art.’’
It is not difficult to mistake the tall and elegant Preetha Reddy for a Bharatanatyam dancer. She went to Kalakshetra, the school set up by the legendary Rukmini Devi Arundale for classical music and dance, during her growing up years. Didn’t Preetha want to take up dancing as a career? “No”, she laughs. She enjoyed every moment of her years at Kalakshetra. ‘’I did a post-graduation in dance. But it stopped there. I married into a very traditional Andhra family, where we don’t go on stage and perform.’’
Preetha is the first-born of the founder of Apollo Hospitals, Dr Prathap Reddy. Dr Reddy studied and worked in the US and came back to India to set up practice. Even as a child Preetha remembers Dr Reddy saying that in India, the healthcare services were not adequate. She remembers him having always wanted to do something about it.
After a small chat, we move to the dining room. There are three different salads, all vegetarian. We both begin with the glass noodles-crispy vegetables salad with soy sauce and a portion of a salad with fruits and nuts. She tells me that her ambition, right since her childhood, was to become a doctor and follow her father’s footsteps. Dr Reddy was working in a private nursing home in Chennai when his dream that eventually became Apollo Hospitals began to take shape. Reddy’s four daughters got caught up in his plans. Consequently, Preetha’s introduction to hospitals and the healthcare business began quite early in her life. Every evening after school, her three younger sisters and she would visit the hospital where her father worked. ‘’We helped out and silently watched how healthcare services were being delivered,’’ she recalls. They used to potter around in the nursing home, carry files and run errands.
In spite of wanting to graduate in medicine, Preetha studied chemistry in College in Chennai. Her dynamic father had a conventional streak in him. “I got into medical college but my father said I couldn’t do medicine. He used to say, ‘My daughters just have to get married and have children’ ”. The daughters did get married and also bore children, but also became hardcore healthcare professionals, training under their father through the years. Preetha got married at 19, even before she finished college. Ten years later, in 1989, Preetha started working at the hospital her father had founded. Dr Reddy, by this time, wanted his daughters to be part of the system he was pioneering. Fortunately, her husband and in-laws were very supportive.
Even as we talk, she urges me to sample everything on the vegetarian spread—the dishes are all low fat, but everything seems delicious. We both plate some grilled sweet potato and capsicum in various shades and brown rice. I help myself to the Thai green curry as well. ‘’I was the last sister to join the business. My sisters were already working with my dad. When my youngest sister Sangita got married and moved to Hyderabad, I stepped in. It was inevitable. Shobhana, who was instrumental in setting up the Chennai property, had also got married and moved to Hyderabad. Suneeta (the third sister) was busy with the hotel project.’’
As we eat, Preetha reminisces about her first days at the hospital. Preetha, as a raw hand, ran straight into a staff strike, complete with slogan-shouting. “It was a trial-by-fire of sorts. I put it out by ‘feeding’ it. I felt that the strikers must be hungry and asked the canteen to serve them food, much against the administration’s wishes. With their stomachs full, the employees cooled off a bit and agreed to go back to work.” That moment on, she plunged headlong into hospital administration.
Preetha literally learnt the business of the group from ground up. When she entered the hospital she worked with the CEO, VJ Chacko. She also got involved with the Hyderabad hospital and its construction. Then, Chacko moved to Delhi and Preetha took charge of operations. This field training was complemented by her extensive research into the various facets of the emerging healthcare environment in India. In five years, she had climbed up the ladder to become the managing director.
Under Preetha’s leadership, Apollo Hospitals has received JCI accreditations—considered the gold-standard in global healthcare—for eight of its hospitals. She has always been, self-admittedly, very detail-conscious; as a result of which, perhaps, she became the obvious choice to spearhead the quality programme at Apollo. “We are the first ones to go through the fourth round and version 5 of this accreditation. It went like a breeze. Our teams are completely empowered and very good,” she says.
A South Indian meal can’t end without curd-rice. However, in Preetha’s kitchen, instead of the traditional white rice, this is prepared with brown rice; this puts a completely new spin of flavour and texture on the traditional dish. Between spoonfuls, she tells me about her commitment to quality and technology. She is on the board of Medtronic, the US-based company which is one of the largest medical devices suppliers in the world. “They wanted somebody on the Board with a non-American perspective. Medtronic is also a very quality-driven company, with a topline of $30 billion and a market capitalisation of over $100 billion. They have a strong R&D setup, too,” Preetha tells me.
This also means she has to go to US six times a year to attend board meetings.
Preetha worries about finding clinical staff. “Patients and beds alone don’t make a hospital. We need good human resources, too. We could have added 10,000 more beds had we found the staff to manage this scaling-up. We need at least 200 to 300 more medical colleges. Governments in Africa want us to come and open hospitals in their countries. We find it difficult given there is a paucity of properly-trained people.”
We end the meal with homemade ice cream. Preetha is off sweets and has camomile tea. I ask her about the recent restructuring in the management, that has starkly defined the roles of the four Reddy sisters. “The four of us have been given responsibilities we are good at,” she notes. Preetha will work closely with Apollo’s clinicians in introducing the latest technology that will boost healthcare outcomes. She will lead the international business and work closely with industry bodies and the government on policy matters. “We are all equals. We take the same salary,” stresses the first among the equals, as she sees me off.
sushila.ravindranath@expressindia.com
