When doctors like P Venugopal, Naresh Trehan or Ashok Seth move not just their patients, even the medical fraternity sits up and takes note. For, as many doctors admit off the record, moving a team of doctors from their previous base, and patients along with them, means big business. By securing eminent cardiac surgeon Dr Venugopal’s services the Alchemist group has already ensured that it is in news — even before setting up shop in Chandigarh.

“Doctors becoming stars is a great thing and I am all for it, only as long as doctors act responsibly,” Union Health Minister Dr Anbumani Ramadoss says. “If someone like Dr Trehan recommends jogging every day people will follow, but when I say the same thing it will draw flak.

“Star doctors must keep in mind that they are setting an example.”

For Escorts, Dr Ashok Seth’s return last month could not have come at a better time. A public spat followed by Dr Naresh Trehan quitting last May had left Escorts in need of some good publicity. With Dr Seth as chairman, Escorts is now more than assured, say many doctors.

“Dr Seth,” says an official at Max Healthcare who does want to be named, “is like Tendulkar — such talents are few and far between.”

In fact, Indraprastha Apollo Hospitals had to create a different office area when Dr Trehan and his team of 64 doctors joined last year. For, the deluge of patients in the very first week was beyond the Apollo management’s imagination or expectation. Patients scheduled for surgery at Escorts opted out and joined a waiting list, often stretching on to months, for an appointment with Dr Trehan.

And the frenzy has not died down even year later. “These patients come asking for specific doctors — it does not matter which hospital they (doctors) work in,” says Dr Anupam Sibal, group medical director, Indraprastha Apollo. “There is a definite impact on business and patient load.”

But Dr Trehan finds this trend unhealthy: “This clearly shows there is a need to bring the dignity of medicine back to medicine. Doctors are being made to promise that they will bring in X number of patients and generate X amount of revenue.

“Doctors cannot become pawns in the hands of corporates — when that happens, patients become victims.”

But no one doubts the ‘power’ of such star doctors. When Dr Anoop Misra, a leading diabetologist, left AIIMS to establish the department of diabetes and metabolism at Fortis-Vasant Kunj in 2006, most of his patients, many of them celebrities, followed him there. “When a star doctor joins any hospital there is an upswing of clinical reputation,” says Sudarshan Mazumdar, head of corporate communication at Fortis/Escorts Hospital. “Patients expect the hospital to be of international standards.

“This also gives confidence to other doctors to join the hospital.”

For hospitals, acquiring a star doctor has become a specialisation in itself. At Apollo, for example, the management has a systematic plan to hire doctors. “We have data on the average age of consultants in our hospital,” Dr Sibal says, “and we keep track of how many young doctors we need, and who will become important in 10 years.

“Similarly, when we feel the need to augment our staff, we hire star doctors — we identify the people we want and then go and get them.”