Dr Anchal Gupta quit Max and Fortis to make eye care accessible and affordable for all

“Tamasoma, Jyotirgamaya” (a line from a verse in the Upanishads, meaning, ‘From darkness, lead me to light’) - these words were deep-rooted in Dr Anchal Gupta’s psyche as it was not only a prayer she recited often but also practised as a way of life.

Anchal’s father, an orthopaedic surgeon with a large heart, would treat farmers with fingers lacerated in agricultural machines or broken bones from falling from trees, free of cost. They would not otherwise seek treatment because they couldn’t afford it.

These charitable endeavours became her cornerstones; as a bespectacled child, Anchal came to empathise even more deeply with those living in actual darkness. She believed a functional eyesight was everyone’s birthright, irrespective of age and class, and resolved to bridge that gap by becoming an ophthalmologist. 

Razor-sharp focus

Born to a middle-class family of doctors in the city of Varanasi, Anchal grew upon a balanced diet of knowledge and righteousness.

Her intellectual capabilities did not let her childhood dream waver, and she cracked the MBBS, PGME, SRship, fellowships in the first attempt.

Straight out of college, at the age of 27, she started her career at Max Super Speciality, Saket and Max Multi-Speciality, Panchsheel, seeking her first job as a specialist consultant. "I was told that I was fit to be a junior resident based on my age, but it was my confidence that helped me bag the consultant profile, and I was soon promoted to super-specialist consultant,” she recalls.

After a few months at Max, she switched over to Fortis Memorial and Research Institute, Gurugram, as Head - Cornea Services. While she was good at her job, the corporate set up did not agree with her. “The itch to serve the masses was strong enough to make me quit these corporate jobs and take the idea I had for Netram to the next level,” she says.

She was of the opinion that ethical eye treatment should reach all - those who can afford it, those who can afford less, or at all. Her aim was to take state-of-the-art eye-care facilities to those in need. This was the core principle on which Netram Eyecare was founded.

The journey of Netram

Netram started from a small basement in 2012 - a chamber and with basic equipment. Anchal was unable to afford operation theatre (OT) equipment at the time, but the numerous screening camps and awareness programmes conducted brought the clinic massive footfalls of patients and she had no choice but to have an OT.

“I still didn’t have the money to buy it, though. Thankfully, the equipment was installed by company folks on zero down payment. I kept earning and paying them back,” she recalls.

Within two years, her practice had flourished to such an extent that she had to resign from Fortis, in order to focus her energies entirely on Netram, and her calling - accessible and affordable healthcare for all.

Soon, she established Netram’s second wing - Netram Eye Foundation. Ten percent of the revenue at Neutral Eye Centre goes to the foundation.

"While we conduct all examinations free of cost, spectacles, medicines and eye surgeries are done at a very nominal price, which, because of higher volume, aids in smooth running of the organisation,” explains Anchal.

For a worthy cause

While Netram wanted to organise eye camps in order to reach those in dire need of such services, after organising several of them Anchal realised that there was a better way to optimise her time as it was growingly unfeasible for her to reach everywhere.

“I designed the “Mini Tele-ophthalmology” model. Optical shop owners are the first points-of-contact and are trained to identify basic eye diseases, click clinical pictures of the eyes and share them via WhatsApp if they find something wrong. This way, my team of doctors and I were able to assess patients in remote areas just with the help of smartphones. Patients are advised treatment accordingly, and those needing elaborate treatment are shifted to the base centre,” she says.

Under this initiative, 35 opticals have agreed to co-brand themselves as Netram. It has also expanded to six full-time peripheral centres across Delhi NCR.

It have also instated other schemes for community service, such as free OPD during the first half of Tuesday every week - for which volunteers, associated opticians, etc are encouraged to get the word across to their guards, maids, auto drivers, slum dwellers and even the elderly who were well-to-do but are not supported by their children.

The peripheral centres are also strategically situated in areas with a high density of poor population. The main centre, through the rest of the week, caters to the economically steady class.

She also initiated Project “ROSHNI,” an acronym for Rural Optical Service, an honorary Netram Initiative in 2016 - where spectacles of villagers and government school students are checked, and prescription glasses are distributed on the spot in case the former is unsuitable. The entire checking and glass fitting apparatus is installed in an ‘Ecco’ van, and the outreach programmes are carried out by collaborating with anganwadi workers.

Lastly, under the project “Vardaan,” Anchal has tied up with pathology labs, diagnostic labs, and optical centres under which patients are provided a membership for just Rs 99, which in turn, knocks off Rs 10,000 to Rs 15,000 from their annual health expenses.

“We now operate from a 5,000 sq ft setup, with a team of five doctors. However, we are still far away from our dream institute,” she says.

Her many roles and goals

Anchal is advisor to the DGHS (Directorate General of Health Services) mobile health scheme for the Delhi government. Juggling so many roles, what she finds most challenging is finding the ideal work-life balance, for she is also mother to a three-year-old. “The toughest part which happens every day is when you are set to leave your home and your child says “Mamma, please don’t go…” 

“My duty is to provide the best possible environment for my daughter’s growth, while continuing my mission. A working mother needs to get over her guilt. There is enough data that proves children of working mums fare better in life, because they have an omnipresent role model. You need to make sure they are in safe and caring hands, install cameras at home and make the best use of whatever time you can give them,” she says.

All this while, Anchal has also been cracking at another, much larger mission. "I want to address the reversible blindness debacle, and how it must be eradicated. Preventive medicine should be the mainstay in the current world of technology and opportunity,” she says.

She also intends to venture into the space of blind schools and centres for people with disabilities. “I want to create spaces where people with special powers are made to feel even more special,” she says, signing off. By the end of 2018, she hopes to have 2018 partner opticals.