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SMOOTH OPERATOR Eye surgeon Dr S Natarajan loves going to the disco
| Publication:Times of India Mumbai; | Date:Dec 24, 2006; | Section:Review; | Page Number:17 |
SMOOTH OPERATOR Eye surgeon Dr S Natarajan loves going
to the disco
The difference between God and a doctor is that nobody
wants an appointment with God. The desperate demand for good doctors has always
ensured that they are among the most powerful people in a society. The most
talented among them, the inimitable artistes of surgery, have politicians,
business tycoons and film stars at their mercy. In this list of Indian super
doctors, we do not claim that we have covered every deserving name. The idea is
to give a peep into the mystical world of these medicine men and discover their
arcane views about life.
DR
S NATARAJAN, EYE SURGEON
RS 45 LAKH A
MONTH
Less than 20 years ago, 41-year-old Dr S Natarajan used to earn Rs 4,200 in the
Bombay Hospital. Now the eye surgeon owns a modern four-storeyed eye hospital
in central Mumbai called Aditya Jyot that is estimated to be worth over Rs 15
crore. His monthly income is in the region of Rs 45 lakh. Former Maharashtra
chief minister Sushil Kumar Shinde and state home minister R R Patil are among
his patients. As the doctor hurries around giving final touches to a live eye
surgery demonstration, using suture-less technology, his three assistants from
different corners of the country say that they are privileged to work with the
“best retina doctor in India”. A product of the famous Shankar Netralaya in
Chennai, the doctor says that for him money is a tool to chart out different
frontiers in the development of his skills.
DR SUDHANSU BHATTACHARYYA ,
CARDIAC SURGEON
RS 3 LAKH PER OPERATION, AT LEAST
It’s nine in the evening. On the fourth floor of the White Hall building in
South Mumbai, around 25 people await their turn. Somewhere inside, 60-year-old
heart surgeon Dr Sudhansu Bhattacharyya, his little white beard giving him a
quiet elegance, peers through scanned Xrays and medical papers. “The most
glamorous branch of medicine,” says Bhattacharyya about the occupation of heart
surgeons.
A heart operation by this doctor costs Rs 3 lakh on the
lower side, which he graciously confirms. The higher side he would not like to
reveal. “I charge depending on the economic capability of the person. For me,
asking for what I deserve is a necessity.” Till a few years ago, he conducted
up to six operations a day. Now, he does not go above three. For two years in
the 90s, he was the highest tax paying doctor in India for which he was awarded
a certificate by the government— a more pleasing treatment than an income tax
survey that was unleashed earlier. “They did not find anything,” says
Bhattacharya. All his fees are paid by cheque. His client list includes former
Maharashtra governor Dr P C Alexander, film producer Rakesh Roshan and renowned
cardiac surgeon Dr B K Goyal.
Bhattacharyya travels by J-class Mercedes and takes two annual foreign
vacations. “I don’t consider myself any less than the best doctors in the US or
anywhere else. I see no reason why I should not charge what I deserve.” A few
years ago, armed men attacked him. They slashed his arms and left behind deep
scars. “I don’t know who was behind the attack, my rivals or some aggrieved
patient.” His doctor wife, a retired gynaecologist with KEM hospital, worked
for free. “In my life, my wife is the 50% which does charity and I am the 50%
which charges,” the doctor says.
Dr NARESH TREHAN, CARDIAC SURGEON “I AM THE HIGHEST TAX PAYER AMONG DOCTORS”
When he was a child, he lived in a three-room apartment in Connaught Place,
where his family took refuge after they were dislodged from Lahore during
Partition. Now, he is the face of cardiac care in Delhi. The executive director
of Escorts Heart Institute and Research Centre, Delhi, and one of the leading
surgeons in India, Dr Naresh Trehan directly or indirectly presides over
350-odd surgeries performed in the institute every month. He gets a percentage
of the fee in remuneration for the involvement. His financial worth is a matter
of speculation among his peers. The 60-year-old doctor himself is reluctant to
make public his charges. “I get a percentage from the package,” he says. (The
bypass package at Escorts is worth Rs 2-2.5 lakh.) Colleagues say his share per
bypass is between Rs 40,000 and Rs 60,000. He is not comfortable talking about
money. “Let’s put it this way. I could have charged ten times the money I am
charging right now. But I did not want my charges to be a barrier in making
quality cardiac care available to all,” he says. Is he the most expensive
cardiac surgeon around? “I can’t say but I can say this that I pay the highest
taxes.” In the mid ’80s, he was making $1.5 million a year as a surgeon in the
US. Does he regret coming back? The answer, from both financial and
professional perspectives, is a big “No”. Though he puts in 12 hours a day at
the hospital, most of them in the operation theatre, Trehan still manages to be
seen at parties. That, he says, is the secret of his energy, along with limited
alcohol intake. “I enjoy every moment of my life with family and friends. I go
to parties. I exercise and practise yoga every morning,” he says. Patients come
from north India, some for his professional acumen, and some, like Anil Sarin
for unexpected reasons. “He was my senior by one year in Modern School,” says
Sarin.
DR ASHOK RAJ GOPAL, ORTHOPAEDIC SURGEON RS 1.2 LAKH A DAY
At Rs 10-12,000 per operation and 12-13 operations that he is involved in every
day, his remuneration at Fortis Hospital in Delhi is not entirely explained by
maths and is the subject of whispers within the hospital fraternity. “It must
run into crores and he is hardly there (in the country),” says a colleague
about Dr Ashok Raj Gopal’s monthly income. The 54-year-old doctor does not deny
it. “I travel all over the world doing surgeries. I have done extensive
operations in Australia, Malaysia, Spain, China, France — you name it,” he
says. Sometime in the ’80s, during his formative years in a Delhi hospital, he
actually paid the medical bills of the first 30 patients (“about Rs 4,000-5,000
per head”) who let him perform arthroscopy on them. Arthroscopy is a system of
orthopaedic examination with a pencil-sized instrument. Now, there are patients
who are willing to wait just to be operated by him. Theatre person Salima Raza,
who underwent bilateral knee replacement says, “I will give him 11 out of 10.”
As a surgeon who has treated at least two presidents of India — Dr A P J Abdul
Kalam and K R Narayanan — Gopal is a high society figure.
DR M G BHAT, GENERAL SURGEON
RS 50,000 PER OPERATION
In Bangalore, patients wait long, sometimes more than 20 days, for an
appointment with 58-year-old general surgeon and laparoscopy expert Dr M G
Bhat. Though associated with the Manipal Hospital, he currently practises at
the upmarket Wockhardt. When not at the hospitals, Bhat runs his own clinic at
the very corporate Prestige Towers, Residency Road. People in the know say that
the moment a particular patient is seen by Bhat, the charges escalate almost
automatically, like some unsaid rule. “Even if it is a minor medical procedure,
the patient is given the most expensive room in the hospital and charged Rs
50,000 to Rs 1 lakh. And this is not for some highly specialised surgery, it
could be a rather small one,” says a junior doctor who worked with Bhat
earlier. He says that he does not run after money or prestige but admits in the
same breath, “I live my life luxuriously. Unlike my peers I don’t hoard money.
Money is for spending, not hoarding.” Bhat travels abroad about four times a
year, but he ensures that he never takes favours from any pharma company. “I do
not get sponsored for any trip abroad. I pay for my entire trip. If a trip is
sponsored by a company, you’ll end up doing whatever they say; you’ve been
bought by them. If I’m supposed to be a high-profile doc, I can damn well pay
for my jaunts, even if I’m presenting technical papers.” TNN