Dr D P Saraswat,
CEO, Sri Balaji Action
Medical Institute and Action Cancer Hospital

Dr D P Saraswat, CEO, Sri Balaji Action Medical Institute and Action Cancer Hospital,began his medical career, in 1972, with the Indian Army Medical Corps, where he served on various administrative assignments for 22 years. Dr Saraswat, in an interaction with Ekta Srivastava, ENN, discusses his journey and vision ahead.

What was your objective at the time you joined the Action Group of Hospitals and how much have you achieved so far?
The objective was to be a part of the most preferred hospital for rendering a large spectrum of clinical services, to build centre of excellence blended with high-quality service to patients, and also keeping our clinicians happy and motivated.
Achievements have been exciting, and we keep raising our own benchmarks.

What challenges have you faced when you planned to come up with a single-specialty hospital?
Good question! Single-specialty hospital becomes centre of excellence with operational efficiencies in terms of time and cost. However, challenges are to arrange doctors of other specialties for cross references especially for cancer patients. The Action Cancer Hospital is located within the same premises of the Sri Balaji Action Medical Institute which is a multi-disciplinary super-specialty. Modern facilities for the cancer treatment are not easily accessible in North India. And, the government hospitals which have advanced facilities have a capacity limitation. So, people, who have to travel long distances from neighboring states, have to wait for long for their turn, which is not desirable in cancer-care management. We wanted to give something which the community needed the most. So, to cope up with the needs of the cancer patients we have come up with this institute.

What latest services have you introduced in the hospital for your patients?
Basic necessity is to have a team of qualified, experienced and competent cancer doctors. Besides that, the spectrum of  services should be complete so that end-to-end treatment is available under one roof. Doctors deliver their best through hi- tech technologies, equipments and instruments. We endeavor to procure the latest technologies in order to avoid  bsolescence. Our service profile is Medical Oncology, Surgical Oncology, Gynae-oncology, Uro-oncology, Radiation Oncology, Musculo-oncology, Neuro-surgery, Pediatric Hematology Oncology, amongst others. To support them, there are  PET-CT scan to ascertain the extent and spread of cancer to other parts of the body. Dual-head gama camera adds value in diagnostics. High-energy RAPID- RC linear accelerator for short exposures and better outcomes was the first one in this  geography. One  more linear accelerator with advanced technology is being procured to avoid long waiting of patients. Most  modern modular operation theaters with advanced  OR-1 facility are working. Some more theaters are added. We have done blood stem cell transplantation with 100 percent success. Modern ICU and step-down ICU are giving high-end intensive care.

In an extraordinary case of one tiniest baby where its mother had only 26-week pregnancy, the mother came to us and asked  or abortion. We took the lady in the OT and the baby came out alive. The weight of the baby was just 550 grams, and in India  his is an unprecedented case. Amazingly, baby survived and he is still surviving today. The mother is from the weaker section of the society, we kept her for three months, and she paid no money. Our team of pediatricians was very happy for the  support they got from the intensivists and the best of the equipments we had. Another incident was with one of our patients  ho  ad four stones in  is kidney, where one stone weighed around 700 grams, and diameter of which was 9 cm. This is a record  peration on a patient with such a huge stone removed. We have also done blood stem cell transplantation.

What is the USP of the Action Group of Hospitals?
Our USP lies in our clinical excellence with service quality. Our endeavour is to cover large volume at affordable cost with a  umanitarian touch. The person should feel at home when he comes here. The food he gets, the conversation he is indulged into with the staff should put him at ease and comfort, and we try to give them a home-like environment. With high-end  technology our doctors, who are experienced, qualified and confident can deliver their best to the patients. 

What is your roadmap ahead?
So far as our global visibility is concerned, we had a lot of patients from Iraq, Uganda, Nigeria, China, UK, the United States,  amongst other countries for super-specialised treatment. We have entered into an agreement with the Iraq Government. They  ill be sending their patients to our hospitals for cancer treatment. In addition to this, the Iraq government wants us to send our team of surgeons, anesthetics and technicians to their hospitals, and operate their patients in their operation theater, thus  having time, pain and cost of sending their patients to India or any other country. We are also trying to make similar  arrangement with Afghanistan. Besides, we are into academics, and at the moment we are also conducting DNB programmes in six specialisations with other degrees, certificates and fellowship programmes along with some para-medical courses. We have  our own nursing school, we have created an opportunity for girls to enhance their skills, and all of them are assured of jobs.  urthermore, we are into research also. Research is happening under two groups, i.e. research on basic sciences and research on clinical trials.

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