Dr Ankur Sinha
Consultant Ophthalmologist
Max Vision Eye Care Centre, Jaipur
Dr Ankur Sinha, consultant ophthalmologist at Max Vision Eye Care Centre in Jaipur has been in group practice for over a decade. After completing their ophthalmology residency from Dr RP Centre for Ophthalmic Sciences, AIIMS, New Delhi, he and his close friend Dr Ajay Jhinjha decided to setup their own practice together. In the brief intervening period between AIIMS and their own practice, he had worked in a charitable setup and with a solo practioner in Jaipur. He shares his experience with AIOS Times, giving an insight into a group practice setup.
Q1. What form of practice are you in? (Solo/Group/Corporate/Private institution/Public institution/Medical College)
I am currently in a group (Dyad practice to be precise)
Q2. Why did you choose the group practice?
For private practice, i always wanted to provide my services to my own state. After reaching back from AIIMS, I tried a short stint with a leading multi-specialty charitable hospital and an established solo practitioner, however, none of them seem to work in terms of work satisfaction, security, independence and professional comfort. Also there was paucity of employers in the city, so I and Dr Ajay Jhinja (my colleague) decided to test the waters on our own and start our practice together.
Q3. Do you have experience of any other form of practice apart from the one you are currently in? If yes,
could you briefly compare them?
As I stated earlier, before starting our practice, I had worked at a leading multi-specialty charitable hospital and with an established solo practitioner in Jaipur.
In most multi-specialty hospitals, ophthalmology is needed for their health check-ups and cross-referrals only as probably the returns with similar investment in major specialties and investigative modalities are more than in ophthalmology. Also there is always a professional insecurity and feeling of ownership is missing. Changing/ planning the equipment needs a lot of hard work, explanations and there is often limited freedom to work under a solo practitioner. Working in a group practice provides amalgamation of freedom of solo practice and benefits of team work. As with other setups, initially, the investment cost is heavy, but it is shared in the group, so are the initial teething problems.
In a group practice, one works for the group and there is a sense of ownership, permanency, more comfort and satisfaction. One has the freedom to choose the investment, scale the practice, make and execute need based plans etc. with relative ease.
Q4. What did you perceive as the key advantages and disadvantages in your current form of practice?
A group practice with a colleague is like second marriage, where you have lows and highs of the practice. The key advantages are:
1. The cost of overall investment is shared, including the procurement, maintenance, upgradation of equipment and the running cost.
2. Better quality of life as one can spare more time off the practice.
3. More sub-specialties can be addressed as there are more people to take charge.
4. Administrative work gets divided as compared to solo practice.
5. In-house opinion in difficult cases (medically as well as administratively), different approach and management of multi-sub-specialty cases may be gratifying. Also patient’s get one stop solutions for the subspecialties offered.
6. Feeling of owning a practice and working for oneself is always there.
7. More foot fall of patients helps increase the trust in the setup thereby increases the practice.
8. All the members of the group get a small piece of sky and recognition of their own, which builds up trust and co-ordination among the members.
However there are a few perceived disadvantages. These include:
1. The colleagues may have different temperament, different approach and priorities, one needs have patience to understand each other’s views with due respect.
2. At times, the planning and execution may slow down due to difference in opinions/approaches, one has to accept and tolerate in good faith.
Q5. If you were to start a new practice today, would you choose a different one?
I would like to state a big NO. This is so as among the reasons, I mentioned above, I feel that the advantages totally outweigh the disadvantages.