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.

... contd.