Top civilian award for Gulf-based NRI doctor

Dr Azad Moopen, the NRI doctor-turned entrepreneur and philanthropist who received India’s third highest civilian honour, the Padma Shri, from President Pratibha Patil yesterday, said he was committed to investing more than Rs10bn in India’s health sector.Dr Moopen’s DM Healthcare has its footprints across the Gulf countries through a chain 100 units comprising hospitals, clinics, diagnostic centres and pharmacies. He was honoured for his contributions to the community in India and across the diaspora.Moopen said his healthcare chain employs some 3,000 people and caters to approximately 12,000 patients a day. In India, his Malabar Institute of Medical Sciences has forayed into the healthcare sector in a big way and the group plans to expand its healthcare chain to 300 units in India and the Gulf countries by 2015.“As a doctor, healthcare is my chosen field and I have been fortunate enough to use it as a platform to reach out to the needy across India and the Gulf countries. DM Healthcare and MIMS will continue to excel in its contributions to the society,” he said.Moopen’s DM MedCity project, at an investment of Rs15bn, is underway in Kochi. Despite being an NRI for over 25 years, Moopen has been active in community initiatives and philanthropy in India.He also plans to set up community dialysis centres (CDC) in all 14 districts of Kerala to provide free and subsidised dialysis facilities to the underprivileged. The first of the CDCs is functional at Vadakara in Kozhikode district with 11 dialysis machines at a total investment of Rs10mn. Another CDC is functioning at Nallalam in Kozhikode with the third and fourth CDCs being set up in the state capital, Thiruvananthapuram and Thalassery in the northern district of Kannur..“We also undertake various community good health programmes (CGHP) and other CSR initiatives like health camps in association with the Indian consulate in Dubai on a weekly basis and breast cancer awareness campaigns. Diabetes prevention and management will be another focused initiative by the group,” he said.The MIMS Charitable Trust, under his leadership, is extending free and subsidised medical treatment to the tune of Rs5mn a year.In 2008, the trust set up a rural health centre at Vazhayoor near Kozhikode and adopted 7,000 impoverished people for comprehensive free OP and IP care. The trust also provides assistance for free peadiatric cardiac surgery through a `Save the Little Heart’ initiative.Moopen’s contributions to his native village Kalpakanchery in Kerala include a Rs10mn human resource management centre to address educational backwardness under his Naseera & Moopen Foundation, a special needs children’s school and a vocational training ITI. The family trust also plans to provide help for the rehabilitation of Gulf returnees in the area as well.A 600-bed, high-end tertiary care `Malabar Institute of Medical Sciences (MIMS) Hospital’ in Kozhikode and a 150-bed MIMS Hospital in Kottakkal, Malappuram district are also part of Moopen’s initiatives with the support of few likeminded NRIs.