Historically the knights were the exemplars who broke the traditional clout of oppression and offered a new ray of hope to the people living under the clouds of despair. Born in 1851 in Mangatwala, Lahore, Sir Ganga Ram, a brilliant civil engineer, constructed many monumental buildings in Lahore while serving the British Government. The Last two decades of his life, he devoted to agricultural and philanthropic activities. He converted 50000 acres of barren land into fertile land by designing an innovative lift irrigation system, constructing Hydel Power Station, and providing a unique horse trainer to this land known after him as ‘Gangapur.’ In 1921, he set up Sir Gangaram Hospital in Lahore. For his unique philanthropic and innovative engineering achievements, the Queen of England knighted him in 1922.

“Today, contributing to the mission of the Knight, Sir Gangaramji, I feel proud to be a part of this Healthcare Family and this State of the art tertiary care hospital at New Delhi,” says Dr Shrey Jain, Neurosurgeon (Brain and Spine Surgeon) at the Hospital.

He further informs that; Sir Ganga Ram Hospital is a 675-bed multi-specialty state-of-the-art Hospital in India. It provides comprehensive Healthcare India services and has become a premier medical institution. It is the only hospital in the private sector that has maintained nearly 100% bed occupancy due to its reputation of providing the highest level of medical services to patients from Delhi and neighbouring states.

After the partition in 1947, the present hospital was established in New Delhi on a plot of land of approximately 11 acres. The foundation was laid in April 1951 by the then Prime Minister of India, Shri Jawahar Lal Nehru, and inaugurated by him on 13 April 1954.

Sir Ganga Ram Hospital in India continues to maintain its charitable character in accordance with the wishes of its founder. Funds generated from hospital services are partially utilized for providing free health care to poor and needy patients. All development activities of the hospital are financed from internal resources, with no financial assistance provided by the government or other external agencies.

The Sir Ganga Ram Hospital is committed to making available 20% of beds of total strength for admission of indigenous and financially weaker sections of the society. All facilities like boarding, lodging, investigations, medicine, and operative procedures are free on these beds.

“In addition, we are running regular OPDs for all disciplines where patients are seen free of charge. 40% of all the investigations the OPD patients are free of charge. These facilities are provided strictly on a first come, first serve basis,” said Dr Shrey, one of ‘India’s Most Renowned Surgeons To Watch In 2023,’ in an interview with CIOLOOK INDIA. The highlights of that discussion are given herein.

Please brief our audience about your Healthcare Organization, its USPs, and how you are currently positioned as one of the most renowned surgeons. 

Sir Gangaram Hospital has been a pioneer institute in providing the best healthcare since 1951, striving to provide society with the best doctors with world class skills and ethics. The ideology taught at this prestigious institute is to treat every human being with utmost care. I also trained to practice these ethics with every patient of mine. Owing to this reputation, patients from all over South East Asia come for our health care services.

Tell us more about your offerings and what aspects enable you to stand out in the cutthroat competition.

The only way to get above the competition is to focus on your work. Keep learning and upgrading your skills, never compromising your moral stand. I focus on ensuring that the work I do should help improve the quality of life for the patient with minimal access to surgery, reducing the recovery period.

Please brief us about your journey in the Healthcare sector and how you made the healthcare Organization excel in its niche.

My life mantra resonates with this quote “Find a job you enjoy doing, and you will never have to work a day in your life.” I am lucky to have found this job.

In years of my career – Every day, I get out of bed motivated to touch more lives. It’s not an easy role – working with patients and their families. The environment is high on emotion. Keeping calm and focusing on the right solution has been a steep learning curve.

I practice minimal access surgery– Minimally invasive surgery that helps reduce patients’ recovery time while giving them the best results.

What was your inspiration behind venturing into the healthcare sector?

From a very young age, I always knew I wanted to help individuals live better lives. Moving into the healthcare sector became a clear goal as I came of age. I eventually enrolled in medical school. While doing my MBBS, I saw some of the most complicated cases coming in with the need for neurological interventions. My curiosity spiked, and I picked my specialization with no doubt. There has been no looking back.

Being an experienced leader, share your opinion on how adopting modern technologies like AI and ML impacts the Healthcare space and how your organization adapts to the change.

AI and ML are still in the very early stages of development to be incorporated completely into healthcare for the time being. However, newer technology will definitely help patients more by reducing complications rate. As surgeons, we should be open to more unique advances to provide better health care and patient experience.

Considering the current industry scenario, what challenges do you face, and how do you drive your Organization to overcome them?

There is much inertia in adopting newer techniques. This inertia pertains to both institutions as well as the public. I have been lucky to work in an institute like Sir Ganga Ram Hospital and with Management and Mentors who encourage using newer advancements. I plan to increase the armamentarium of the hospital and include surgeries not just directed at curing diseases but also improving the lifestyle of affected patients. I plan to be at the helm of this change and empower my patients to access better healthcare options.

What would be your advice to budding entrepreneurs who aspire to venture into the Healthcare space?

Today there are new thoughts on how the healthcare space can be made more technologically advanced. My support and best wishes to such entrepreneurs who envision collaboration, connectivity, speed, and efficiency in helping us deliver better services.

My advice to them would be that the nation spans far and wide, yet good healthcare can sometimes seem inaccessible. If we can enable the right help at the right time – we have done our jobs right.

How do you envision scaling your Organization’s operations and offerings in the future?

As a part of the neurosurgery department of Sir Ganga Ram Hospital, we plan to increase the complexity of surgeries undertaken in the institute along with expanding the armamentarium while upholding the standards already expected from us.

We have been working on expanding into minimally invasive surgeries and functional neurosurgery, which includes deep brain stimulation for better lifestyles of patients suffering from various neurological disorders like Parkinson’s and Tremors.