In the realm of healthcare, pioneers emerge who are dedicated to making a difference in the lives of their patients. One such visionary is Dr Krishna Prasad Rao Vunnam, the Founder and Managing Director of Ankura Hospital for Women and Children. His relentless commitment to delivering world-class medical care to women and children has earned him recognition and respect within the medical community and beyond. CE spoke to him about his decade-long journey, learning from past mistakes and love for adventure sports.
What was the initial inspiration for you to start Ankura Hospital?
We started Ankura Hospital in the year 2012. I came back to India from Australia in 2011 and I worked as a consultant at one of the reputed hospitals in Hyderabad and I have done my super specialty in the field of neonatology. At that time I saw the need for quality healthcare in the women and child segment. There were a lot of infant deaths and a lot of maternal deaths happening which was way more than the world average. So, I along with a few of my friends who were also pediatricians thought of coming up with a world class hospital for women and child health care. So that is how we started.
How has your journey been?
It was a roaring success and we are doing extremely well. Then we thought we could use the same formula and started our second branch in Begumpet and that was a failure unfortunately. But that has taught us so many lessons. We had thought we could replicate the same thing and be successful but it's not that easy to replicate the success formula. The lessons learned through this experience are very important. We need the right kind of infrastructure, the right kind of market survey before we can start something along with the right kind of team. I think those were the areas which were lacking for our second branch. We took those things into consideration before we started anywhere else.
How many branches do you have across India?
We have 14 branches across three states - Telangana, Andhra Pradesh and Maharashtra, and we have 10 in Hyderabad itself. We have recently launched one in Maharashtra that is in Pune and one more project coming up in Bhubaneswar, Odisha.
What are the factors you look into while zeroing on a location for a new branch?
Market survey is a very important factor and also availability of doctors. Then comes the infrastructure, that's also very important because it's a women and child hospital maternity hospital and as you know maternity is not a disease, it's a celebration, so everything has to have a positive outlook.
So from 2012 till now, it's been a lot of eventful years for you.
Recovering from the failure of our second branch was a challenge. For the next two years we have been struggling to cope up and also during Covid-19 times. Those two-and-half years were very challenging for the women and child healthcare segment particularly. We adopted quite well, we came up with new protocols and systems in place.
Where do you place Hyderabad in your success journey?
Hyderabad is the place where we started and where we have the maximum presence. So I put it on top. Whatever the new things which we bring in at Ankura, we definitely would do it at Hyderabad first and then only we'll do it at any other place.
How do you unwind yourself after a stressful day?
Most of the time I do feel like I am still in hospital or in that mode. But to get away from that I engage in various sports - I do running, I am a marathon runner, I am into trekking, I play tennis and kick boxing as well. Not to mention that spending time with family is a great way to unwind.
If you were not a doctor, what would be your profession?
If not a doctor, maybe I would have gone into business because my father is also a businessman. But I think I would have gone into the healthcare business only.
Any suggestions for the government regarding the healthcare industry?
Government has been actually very cooperative and also they have come up with so many changes in the government healthcare sector as well. The government can pitch in more by giving super specialty care to the newborns and also for high risk obstruct deliveries.
Future plans
We have plans to open in Bangalore soon. In the next 2-3 years, we have plans to expand in the south and western part of India. But over the next five years, we want to make Ankura, a Pan India human and healthcare brand.