Fortis, so far it seems, is being unfair to Dr. Trehan

by Amrit Hallan on May 23, 2007

A couple of years ago when my father went through a bypass surgery at the Escorts Heart Institute he had already fixed up an appointment with Dr. Trehan, the internationally renowned heart surgeon, from Abu Dhabi. Many patients claim that half the illness is gone after they have had a talk with Dr. Trehan. He has more than 50,000 surgeries to his credit.

Fortis, after taking over the Escorts Heart Institute, have been having some troubles with Dr. Trehan, and recently he was asked to go due to some clash of interests. The Fortis management says that Dr. Trehan focuses more on his Medicity project in Gurgaon and less on the Escorts assignments.

Doctors on the side of Dr. Trehan on their part have filed a petition in the Delhi High Court stating that he should be allowed to continue as the executive director of the heart institute.

I think the Fortis management has an ego problem, and as Dr. Trehan mentioned in a magazine article, some darker things are happening on the management side and he is a hurdle. For long he has been complaining that the institute was supposed to be a non-profit body, as it was initially designated to be by the founders (this included Dr. Trehan himself and H. P. Nanda). Later on, Anil Nanda, perhaps, made it into a company in 2000 against the wishes of Dr. Trehan. He kept on telling Dr. Trehan that the institute will be turned non-profit after a few years, but this never happened. And then in 2005 Fortis took over, and ever since then, Dr. Trehan has been a thorn to them.

Fortis may also be feeling threatened by Dr. Trehan’s brand recognition because most companies cannot tolerate employees bigger than them. I mean, who knows Fortis Healthcare Managing Director Shivinder Mohan Singh? Very few people outside of their corporate office or in particular circles. Dr. Trehan, on the other hand, is a recognized name all over the civilized world and patients especially throng the Escorts hospital especially to get treated by him. Without him, the Escorts hospital has no value, and this is something that must be upsetting the Fortis management’s stomach.

[tags]trehan, dr. trehan, fortis, escorts institute, heart institute[/tags]

  • Shailesh Jha

    Amrit,

    Have been seeing vindicative comments against FHL for some time now and just wanted to tell you to see both sides of the story. Trehan is not an angel by any means, and much of this seems to be a case of him trying to victimise FHL, not the other way around. All they did was show him respect in the release announcing his departure, with the only issue being the conflict of interest. It was he who decided to senstaionalise and make a mountain out of a molehill. That should tell you something about the size of his ego, not FHLs. The rest of this comment gives you the other side of the story, and please do take the time to read it and understand that there IS more than meets the eye.

    The treatment looks unfair, but if you knew the REAL back story you’d differ, so i’d hope. The press sensationalises, and hopes that we believe the sensationalism injected into this. The only person who has an EGO problem, is Trehan.

    Honestly, dont you think the FHL management would have thought about this very carefully before doing this? It is a business for God’s sake and you should let people run it the way they want so long as it does not hurt anybody. And their decision, contrary to what they would like you to beleive, if actualy not hurting any patients. Ops continue to run. Really, they have talked to patients who say they dont know what to do because Trehan cant see them etc… Reality check though, Trehan hardly does any surgeries himself now anyway, he does spend a lot of time schmoozing and drinking after hours though. He is a good doctor, no doubt, but that does not give him the right to actively start using personnel at Escorts for his own purposes, or to ignore his responsibilities as the director of the institute. Remember now that an executive director has responsibilities OTHER than medical. In other words, he was ignoring his administrative and executive function duties, but perhaps not his medical.

    That, in and of itself, is grounds for termination, No matter how good a doctor you are, you cannot ignore the senior MANAGERIAL responsibilities part of your job descripotion and expect to last in a PROFESSIONAL environment. I am sure FHL would have offered to ask him to become just senior doctor and relinquish the ED post, but i dont think, given his stature, he could have lived with that.

    You tell me, if you saw someone, good doctor he may be, playing havoc with your business and ignoring his duties as an employee to focus on a competing project, would you stand for it as a businessman? Would you honestly? I didn’t think so. Then Dr.Trehan says well hey, there are ways of parting. Yes, but Dr.Trehan is the one who decided to publicise and vistimise FHL, not the other way around.

    Look at the FHL releases, all they have done is accord him respect. All they wanted was to go their own separate ways after things did not work out. Isn’t that what everyone should be entitled to in a civil democratic society, or do we want to suggest we live in a socialist country where people need to be shackled to a course of action no matter if it kills them?

    You must know, if you read the stories from 2005 when FHL came in, that Escorts Heart was not in very good financial health before they came in. There is no excuse for that, because, even before they were bought by FHL, they charged good money for treatment. And Dr.Trehan, was paid very well indeed. Finally, as a charitable institution, they had an extemely low to nil tax burden, so you tell me, why were they not doing so well financially?

    I am an investor in FHL. Yes, before the IPO, i had not heard of SM Singh, the FHL MD. But you know what? Thats because he never actively sought the limelight or any media attention. All he did with his management was focus on WORKING to build a good healthcare brand. Building viable supply infrastructure to meet patient demand. That my friend, is what will ultimately benefit you or anyone else who gets sick because more supply means price falls as supply meets demand – simple economics. And yes, it is a business, but a business focussed on getting full access healthcare supply operational and available to everyone.

    And, contrary to what they would have you believe, and this is the clincher, no patients are being hurt by Trehan not being there anymore. Escorts, and FHL, has some of the best heart surgeons in the country, and those guys continue to perform. Yes yes but you say, ‘Trehan is the BEST, GOD etc…!’ Well news for you, there have been reports that this guy has been reportedly drunk the night before surgeries, and hung over on the day of surgeries. Now he may be very good, but there are many who are as good, under FHL, and they are doing a damn good job. How do i know, simple, my father was treated at Escorts last year. And Trehan had NOTHING to do with it.

    The problem of course, is that people will say ‘but we only want Trehan etc…’. Well, here’s the thing, he did not take that much of an active interest in his daily work anyway, he was more focussed on getting medicity off the ground, and thats what a ‘conflict of interest’ is. After the accursation, of course the knee jerk response is to deny, and thats what Trehan is doing, with all the public support, his word seems infallible. But you must see both sides of the story.

    Finally, a word on SM Singh. The one thing the guy is NOT, is dishonest. How can i tell? Read the FHL IPO prospectus. They have made full disclosure of every lawsuit and potential liability they face. Everything. I am a lawyer so i know what you need to and do not need to disclose. They disclosed everything, all possible, contingent liabilities, everything. What is more, you look at the financing section – there are a number of personal guarantees he’s given for loans FHL took. This guy is an honest risk taker who is trying to build a business from scratch to benefit the little guy. You and me. If all we want to do is bury him for trying to run his business well, while making sure that the patients are not compromised, then we should feel very ashamed of ourselves indeed.

    SM Singh said on CNN IBN the other day that people have been planted to say that patients etc… are being mistreated. I am inclined to beleive that, because we have a history in this country of manipulating public sntiment via the media.

    And Ranbaxy and FHL, have they tried to manipulate public opinion? Surely you would think that with their resources they could right? Then why haven’t they? Because they are honest. They will let this run its course, let Trehan puff his feathers and stomp around like a child saying ‘wah wah you cant take away my toffee!’ because you know what, in the end, they will be proven right. I feel that this was a good decision they took.

    Just wanted to give you both sides of the story. Hope you take it in the right spirit. Regards.

  • Shailesh Jha

    Amrit,

    Just wanted to add one more thing. The other valid argument one can make in favor of Trehan is that ‘hey, you took away his livelihood, now how will he earn an income?’. Well, this is life and not a fairytale. Obviously FHL gave him every chance (20 months ot to and fro!), but he would not listen.

    Lets be very clear, they fired him BECAUSE his focus on Medicity was interfering with his daily duties at Escorts, they did NOT fire him because they could not get equity in Medicity.

    If an employee continues to then have a serious day to day conflict of interest, then they do run the risk of being terminated. And Trehan is not GOD. He is human, and he should get used to being treated like a human. FHL gave him all due respect in letting him go, and that is as much as one owes to human, as opposed to divine, employees.

    Face it, Dr.Trehan can go anywhere he wants and work. Anywhere. AIIMS would take him on a senior post without blinking. Its not as though he’s high and dry. No, he has an ego thats bruised and he wants to fight because he thinks that he is bigger than enyone or anything. That is wrong. No matter how good a surgeon he may be.

    Again, just giving the other side of the story and hope its taken in the right spirit. Regards.

  • Indra

    Agree with wht Shailesh has mentioned – Trehan has been a better in PR management than the Fortis team – he is a famous page 3 personality and has been able to pull and get the press to sensationalise the story.

    I would ask just a simple question who would you feel if you have some one in your house and that person is working against you interests. Just for a moment gett out of all this corporate culture and corporate doings. Just think by putting yourself in the shoes of Shivinder. The best person to judge is the person who is going through all this and who has been facin all this for 20 months and trying to do what all he could for coming to a settlement.

    the only fault of Fortis has been that they have waited 20 months to take this step – had they taken this step the day they tool over Escorts nothing of this sort would have happened. Trehan is not GOD – he is a greta doctor no doubt about it but he is not a fair businessman or an individual. Sitting in the home he was working against the interests of the organisation that he had built. This was not only with the Fortis but with Nanda’s… had they thought of the Dr to be so great individual hy would they sell the business .. because they could not handle the Dr Trehan…

    This can keep on going on and on.. hope the amicable settlement works towrads teh betterment of the patients…

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