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Dr. Sanjay Paithankar – the doctor whose success in the UAE came with not chasing money
See more at https://gulfnews.com/videos
Dr. Sanjay Paithankar – the doctor whose success in the UAE came with not chasing money
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00:00My journey all started in UAE in 1988, it was on 26th January 1988 I first landed in UAE.
00:09I was supposed to join Rashid Hospital as a specialist cardiologist but unfortunately
00:16those were the days where our Indian degrees were not accepted as specialists. So instead of joining
00:21them I went to Abu Dhabi and joined a private clinic called Al Fahimi clinics which was basically
00:28having an OPD of almost 600 to 700 patients per day. I was a head physician there. Working with
00:36them I realized that my potential is underutilized so I joined the Ministry of Health Shah Jao
00:42and after working for five years with Ministry of Health and other four years with Department
00:47of Health during this course I conceived the idea that our expatriate workers, the laborers
00:54who are accommodated into the labor accommodation areas
00:59are not accessible to basic health care. One of the reasons was all these
01:08labor camps were outside the city limits and there was no real road access to that. I remember in
01:151989-90 the biggest labor camp area in Ajman where I used to visit was not even accessible
01:26by four-wheel drives it was on the outskirts nothing. So after working with the ministry for
01:3310 years I realized that our poor people laborers who are the backbone or the foundation of UAE's
01:42growth are unable to get a basic health care so I decided to open up clinics which will provide
01:50them with absolutely quality health care at their doorsteps at the most affordable cost. So our
01:58principle was very simple at the doorsteps quality health care at an affordable cost.
02:06I opened my first clinic and pharmacy in Ajman. Ajman was a very booming area for the garment
02:12industries in those days and within six months the popularity of the clinic had gone wide and
02:22we were receiving almost 100 patients per day and lot of inquiries used to come from all other emirates
02:29to open up similar clinics which will provide them health care as low as 10 dirhams which is
02:36including medicines and mind well those days Indian medicines were allowed in UAE. So we
02:44opened this clinic in 1993 and it was the starting of the so-called new Sanai Agro.
02:52As the time passed wherever the labor camps were the demand was increasing as the growth of UAE was
03:00so more and more people were getting in into the labor camps so the demand for good quality health
03:06care increased. So with the aim of providing with the health care we started opening new clinics.
03:13My first clinic in Dubai was opened in January 2002 and as of today we have the total group has
03:2357 medical facilities and directly under me is 37 but total is 57 medical centers.
03:32We have in Dubai, Sharjah, Ajman, Abu Dhabi, Al Ain. See basically the whole idea was to treat
03:39these people who cannot afford medical treatment and we did not have insurance. So areas these
03:46people were staying in were not easily accessible to the city area because the transportation was
03:53not available. So if the patient used to get sick for them to move from their residential
03:58area to the hospital area sometimes used to take hours to days. One of the turning point which
04:06helped me to take a decision to start this was I received a young man a Pakistani patient 27 years
04:13old with a chest pain and he was lying in Sonapur for almost three days in his camp drinking cold
04:19water to relieve the chest pain because his company was not able to provide him with the
04:25transport to come to the hospital and take a treatment. When he landed after three days we
04:30found that he had developed a massive heart attack. Well then we underwent some procedures
04:36we saved him but the thing that he was not able to reach was alarming and then I decided and opened
04:46my first clinic in Sonapur. Likewise wherever the laborers were staying transportation was difficult
04:54costly and also they did not have time because of the long working hours they could not go to
05:00the clinic and get the basic health care. So we opened up clinic in these areas and our greatest
05:06difficulty during the whole time was to get the locations because in labor camps no commercial
05:16activity was allowed. Now to get in place in a labor accommodation area with commercial activity
05:23is allowed was exorbitant the cost of rent the cost of key money the cost of establishing the
05:32clinic was very high where rents are minimal even in the top business areas our rents are very high
05:39so it was very difficult first to get a place and then the second one was to get the most important
05:45thing was the rent. Another factor which was very difficult for us to manage was getting good
05:52doctors who are also good human beings. See getting a good doctor is easy getting a good
05:58human being is easy but getting a combination of a person who is a good doctor who is also
06:04equally good human being is difficult nowadays because everybody needs money and there is people
06:11used to think that there is no much money in treating the laborers but in fact we proved them
06:15wrong because our formula to keep our good doctors retained was very simple we used to make
06:23them partners in our business so even the receptionist who works in my clinic shares the
06:31profit what I get so each one becomes a partner in business so that difficulty also we have overcome.
06:38Now another difficulty was getting permissions from the health authorities looking at my work
06:45what I was doing for the poor people all the government authorities were so helpful
06:50things which took one month for others were done within one day for us and they knew that whatever
06:57work is being done by Dr. Sanjay is 100% ethical we never bypass the rules and regulations
07:03all our clinics all our pharmacies all our staffs are 100% ethical approved by DHA and MOH
07:12so there was no bypass and in our journey we made sure that we do ethical practice
07:18in both terms of legality as well as treating the patients none of our patients were
07:24overcharged so getting and retaining the people was difficult but now for the junior staff we
07:31started off giving free accommodation and free transportation which is used to a major chunk of
07:37their salary has to be spent on transportation and accommodation so we took charge of that and
07:43also very importantly the first child of our staff I gave them free education so the first child I
07:51used to pay their college fees school fees so that the family stays together because it's very
07:58simple if my staffs are happy they will work more and my patients will be happy if an unhappy staff
08:05will create an unhappy environment which I never wanted off now every time we had a formula to
08:12overcome our difficulties but still new difficulties used to come but collectively we have overcome all
08:19this difficulty and today we prove that from a mere three people staff we have grown to 350 staff
08:29merely one clinic in 1993 today we have grown up to 57 medical facilities
08:36in all the emirates today we see almost 2000 patients per day all ethical treatment and most
08:44importantly what is there is till today there has been a no single violation on our part as
08:54per the health authorities is concerned so we intend to in 2018 we have seen 850,000 patients
09:04our target is to reach 1 million by 2020 having 65 medical facilities we also want to expand into
09:13Ras Al Khaimah Um Al Quwain and Fujairah these are the three emirates we don't have the clinic but
09:18definitely we are expanding into that and we have joined hands with an investment company
09:24by name foundations along with creating a company by name right health so we have rebranded new
09:32sanaya group and to right health group and we are expanding today I have a team of dedicated 450
09:39staff out of which the clinical staff itself is 350 and it's like a family and I hope and wish
09:50that to grow more to provide this ethical treatment to provide this sort of good health
09:57care again at an affordable cost at the doorsteps to each and every person who comes to UAE who is
10:05a backbone or a foundation of UAE construction one very important thing we are with the support
10:12of the rulers of the country we wish to fulfill their dreams of making this as the most comfortable
10:20place on the earth to stay