CEO Insights India

The three decades of Dr. T. Nirmal Fredrick's healthcare journey can be best described in a word 'Meraki' doing some thing with soul, happiness, and love, by putting himself into whatever he's doing. Eyecare has been his passion, and his humanitarian vision is its cornerstone. Despite hailing from a small town in Chengalpattu district, Tamil Nadu with deeprooted mettle and spirit, Dr. T. Nirmal pursued his MBBS and MS in Ophthalmology from the renowned Madras Medical College, followed by a postgraduate Diplomate and fellowship from the International Council of ophthalmology. With a list of prestigious credentials, he served in the Eyecare specialty as Eye Surgeon and Teaching Faculty at Regional Institute and Cataract/Glaucoma surgeon in several hospitals. Currently, he is the MD/Chief Eye Surgeon at Nirmal Eye Hospital, Tambaram, Chennai.

Engaging in an exclusive interaction with the CEO Insights team, Dr. T. Nirmal highlights the distinctive details of his healthcare journey and how he is redefining Eye care in India.

What inspired you to choose Healthcare, especially vision care as your career? What marked the start of Nirmal Eye Hospital?
Life is a great teacher and only those who learn from it can be responsible for changing others' lives. The best gift that life has bestowed upon us is vision and I consider it to be a Gift of God. The importance of vision motivated my journey into the segment of vision care. Early exposure to the trials and tribulations of vulnerable children and elderly visually handicapped people inspired me to take up medicine and pursue a career as an eye specialist to restore sight and hope for people with eye-related problems.

Driven by this humanitarian vision, started my medical career with Tamilnadu Government and parttime medical practice at Tambaram, Chennai. After 15 years of Government service and private

practice with a good patient base, I thought it's prudent to start my own setup to offer specialized eye care services under one roof and advanced, appropriate and affordable eye care to our patients. With that noble aim, the present hospital Nirmals Eye Hospital was inaugurated in 2006. Since then, we have grown from a primary and secondary level eye care to a tertiary care speciality eye hospital with six subsuper specialities and support services in eye care.

How would you define Nirmals Eye Hospital as a healthcare institution and the values it possesses?
Nirmals Eye Hospital is built on the foundation of providing affordable, advanced, and appropriate eye care services. We have long been a hope for needy patients, and in the long term, we intend to become a Centre of Excellence in Providing Eye Care Services to restore Sight and Hope.

Loss of sight invariably makes people lose hope. When we restore sight, we also restore hope for the future, life, and humanity­ This is not only our tagline but also our mantra. In all our interactions with our patients, we ensure that they go with a positive frame of mind and hope that their eye problem or disease will be sorted out and they can regain their sight and good eye health.

What niche areas of care does Nirmals Eye Hospital focus upon? What sets it apart from other hospitals?
Our core services include Cataract and Glaucoma services, Squint and Paediatric Ophthalmology­ Myopia clinic, Refractive Surgery, Dry eye & lifestyle disorders, and Vision Therapy & low vision services. We are very keenly focused on quality and outcomes. In fact, we were the first ISO 9000:2001 certified eye hospital in the region in 2006 with the British Standards Institute. We now have multiple accreditations with ISO, Full NABH accreditation under eye care standards, Kayakalp certification from Govt. of India for the clean and safe hospital under Swacch Bharat mission, and WORKPLACE ASSESSMENT for

SAFETY & HYGIENE (WASH) certification by Quality Council of India, Best Patient-friendly hospital by AHPI and various awards to recognize our quality and good outcomes.

Something that adds to our USP is that we take time to listen to their problems, counsel and educate them about their disease and errors, and help them sort out the challenges with appropriate and advanced eye care.

How has been your response to the challenges posed by the Covid-19 pandemic?
As a single speciality centre, our response was to follow the lockdown norms and take care of the emergency and postoperative patients. Since we had systems in place for infection control and patient and staff safety, we were able to start our OPD services during the first wave itself.

Since then, we have strengthened our infection control system and continuously provided service. None of our staff got infected during the three waves of COVID. We diligently followed and made the patient also understand and follow the COVID protocols. We also started tele ophthalmology and provided outreach services to our patients during this time.

What changes in healthcare do you anticipate?
COVID-19 has exposed the fault lines of India's public health system. The healthcare industry is seeing a lot of changes post-COVID, and hopefully, the pandemic would act as a window of opportunity to invest in healthcare and undertake public healthcare reforms that are long due. To mention a few, developing Medical infrastructure in Tier-II & III cities forming optimal regulations & policies to improve the quality of eye care services, facilitating and easing travel restrictions and regulatory requirements. Also, providing an affordable & sustainable eye care delivery system with proven technology and trained manpower.

Dr.T. Nirmal Fredrick,Managing Director & Chief Eye Surgeon, Nirmals Eye Hospital
Dr. T.W Nirmal has over 25 years of experience in eye surgery and consultation. He is an expert in Quality EyeCare, Cataract, Glaucoma and Paediatric Eye Care services.