M.P. Birla group’s pursuit of excellence continues

Of late, corporates have been putting in millions into the healthcare infrastructure, but there is one group that has been doing it since the late 1940s. That is the M.P. Birla group, which have more than 2,000 beds across India, purely to benefit society and not to make profit as a business venture. The group under the guidance of Harsh V. Lodha, chairman of the group, is serving the community in the health care area, providing the best medical facilities to the community at affordable cost.

To start with, in 1949, the group had established Bombay Hospital under Rameshwar Das Birla, father of M.P. Birla, who dedicated himself to the service of the people and endeavoured to provide them with the best medical facilities. M.P. Birla followed in his father’s footsteps and established many hospitals, where people can get world-class medical treatment at minimum expenditure. Since then, Bombay Hospital has been expanded to the extent that it now has 650 beds, 250 of which are in the general ward. Besides, another 150 beds are heavily subsidised; as also are two dozen operation theatres. 

“About 60 per cent of the operations performed by its surgeons are at nominal charges,” explains Santanu Mallick, head CSR, Birla Corporation Ltd. “Every year, about 40,000 patients are treated at its free OPD. More than 250 consultants and 2,000 members of the staff keep the Bombay Hospital firmly wedded to its twin ideals of charity and the pursuit of excellence”. Mallick also points out that Bombay Hospital, Indore, which was opened in October 2003, is a 300-bed super-specialty tertiary care referral centre, while work is in progress for a new multi-super-specialty hospital, with 500 beds, at Ramchandrapur, Jaipur, Rajasthan.

The M.P. Birla Hospital at Satna, Madhya Pradesh, was established in 1991 and is the only multi-specialty hospital in Satna and the surrounding 10 districts, Mallick adds. “The hospital is now a 104-bed NABH-accredited hospital, with the capability to treat another 15-20 patients at times of need. Its gynaecology department is one of the best in the entire district. It has even extended its arm to other remote areas of the region, by offering tele-medical consultation by specialists with the latest audio-visual facilities and home delivery of medicines to the aged and the young. Even for the underprivileged, this tertiary care hospital has constructed a Vishram Bhawan, where the patient’s relatives can stay almost free, cooking their own food, while their loved ones are being treated at the hospital”.

In Satna, in 2008, came Priyamvada Birla Cancer Research Institute, which is one of its kind in diagnosis and treatment of cancer in the entire Vindhya region. The 10-bed hospital has a dual energy linear accelerator and radiation field analysis, with CT simulation systems for providing radiation therapy to cancer patients who had no option but to go to Nagpur or Mumbai earlier. Similarly, Priyamvada Birla Institute of Life Sciences (PBILS), Satna, was established in 2014 for holistic research in medicine and advancement of drug knowledge, particularly against cancer.

The M.P. Birla group has a NABL & NABH-accredited Belle Vue Clinic, Kolkata, a winner of the Asian Patient Safety Gold Award at the 8th International Patient Safety Conference in 2019. It has emerged as an important health care facility in eastern India. Belle Vue Clinic and Priyamvada Birla Aravind Eye Hospital today together have 372 beds.

And, to take care of its health care workers, the establishment has Priyamvada Birla Institute of Nursing, a nursing school-cum-college, that was set up on the second Belle Vue campus at New Town, Rajarhat, at an investment of Rs103 crore, in a state-of-the-art, 15-storied building. “It is the largest nursing school in West Bengal in the private sector and will help in meeting the acute shortage of nurses in the country,” adds Mallick.

Under the leadership of Harsh Vardhan Lodha, chairman, M.P. Birla Group, Belle Vue Clinic, which is now in an expansion spree, together with the eye care facilities, will have 936 beds in Kolkata, at an investment of Rs506 crore. “Considering the emerging market for low-cost multispecialty services, the new Belle Vue unit at Rajarhat will be a general multi-specialty hospital that will house about 160 beds to begin with”.

“A 400-bed new multi-specialty hospital with advanced technology will be built as one of the finest facilities in the whole of eastern India,” assures Mallick, talking about the future. “The hospital building will be a high-rise with 11 floors including two basements”.

Also, two years after the death of Priyamvada Birla, in 2006, the group started, a 46-bed, super-specialty tertiary care eye hospital – the Priyamvada Birla Aravind Eye Hospital -- in collaboration with Aravind Eye Hospital, the world’s largest community eye care provider. It is located within the precincts of Belle Vue Clinic and is a ‘hospital of trust’ for patients coming from Bangladesh and other countries. One can be proud of its R&D facility and the hospital’s track record of zero hospital acquired infection.

This NABH-accredited hospital has averaged 122,000 patients per year, with more than 6,000 surgeries and 9,000 cataract surgeries, which is highly subsidised through its M.P. Birla Eye Clinic for weaker sections of society. Till last year, its eye bank has collected about 2,000 eyes, which were all transplanted successfully. It has also added one more eye hospital and pharmacy at Durgapur, West Bengal. The Priyamvada Birla Aravind Eye Hospital, Durgapur, runs eye camps through the year and has completed about 1,500 surgeries. The M.P. Birla Eye Clinic, Kolkata, with some 25 beds, offer highly subsidised, all-inclusive treatment to the needy people of North and South 24 Parganas, Howrah, Hooghly and nearby districts. It regularly organises outreach eye camps in remote areas.

The M.P. Birla Hospital & Research Centre, Chittorgarh, Rajasthan, which opened just two years ago, has been participating in the Rajasthan government’s healthcare initiatives for the needy and financially weaker sections through its erstwhile Bhama Shah and now Ayushman Bharat Mahatma Gandhi Rajasthan Swasthya Bima Yojna. This 100-bed hospital, with an initial investment of Rs100 crore, is equipped with state-of-the-art facilities,  including modular OTs, fully equipped trauma & critical care unit, 24×7 emergency services, 128 slice CT scan machine, a modern mother and child unit with SICU and NICU facilities and a general and laparoscopic surgery department, equipped for minimal invasive surgical procedures. It has set up a 30-bed Isolation ward-cum-Covid-19 treatment facility, working in collaboration with the Rajasthan government.