‘Fortis management raised a voice of protest, but they were overruled’

NEWDELHI: Fortis Healthcare Ltd has been in news for wrong reasons of late, including investigations related to advances made to companies linked to its erstwhile promoters, a financial crunch and allegedly charging exorbitant fees for treating a child. In an interview, chief executive Bhavdeep Singh offers some explanations and defends some of the company’s actions. Edited excerpts:

Did you know about loans made to companies linked to the founders of the company? Did you approve them?

This is a matter under investigation. There are certain things I can’t comment on but I can tell you as and when the management became aware they raised a voice of protest, they were overruled. The report by the law firm has clearly indicated that. Beyond that there are certain things we can’t comment on right now. I think the fact that there was a resistance, there was a strong protest around it and there was an overrule, says a lot. The Luthra report had full access to everything. It’s a well-reputed law firm. If they have said it obviously there is a justification to that statement.

If you were overruled why did you not resign? Will you work with someone who is not ethical knowing it fully?

There are certain things I can’t comment on because it is under probe . I can tell you that endeavour has always been to do the right thing.

So where did it all go wrong? Did you call anyone for help?

The catalyst for this obviously was group and promoter issues. Whatever issues we are dealing with are all linked to that. We have made a very clean break with the promoters in every way, shape and form. It’s unfortunate, Shivinder built this company but the reality is that was yesterday. There is no connect, there can’t be. This is a different company today, it has to be a different company. We need to move forward. This is no longer that Fortis. It has to be different we have made a clean break we have made an absolute break. We need to move forward.

Why is law firm Luthra & Luthra’s investigation report not in public domain. Why is it a secret document?

In due time they will come out but there is a natural course of justice. Let it take its course.

Gurgaon’s Fortis Hospital allegedly overcharged the family of sevenyearold girl Adya Singh who died of dengue. What role did you play as CEO?

We did a detailed clinical investigation with respect to what happened in the case. Even the government of Haryana in their report clearly said that there was no evidence of medical negligence here and there wasn’t.

What about the exorbitant charges?

After the story broke, there was a lot of noise about the number of gloves and syringes that were used. There was something like 700 gloves used, the reality is the gloves that we used were exactly right. If we hadn’t used them, the headline would have been Fortis practises poor infection control practices. The number of syringes used were exactly right. That’s what should have been done.

Are you justifying the fees the family had to pay?

I’m saying that the prices that we charged were consistent with what any private hospital would be charging for such services.

The reality is that when you go outside the office here, there is a guy who sells paranthas. ₹40 a parantha. I have had. You go across the street: the Taj and you order the parantha, it’s gonna cost you 500odd rupees, good parantha. ₹40 and ₹500, when we go into Taj we recognize the fact that there is a value proposition. The building is nice, the staff is trained, the hygiene conditions, etc.

When we come to Fortis or Max, Apollo, Medanta, Manipal, the amount of investment that a company makes to put the type of infrastructure that is there it’s quite substantial and significant.