The majority of the Indian population still does not have access to basic healthcare, forget about the advanced technology. Our first priority should be to make healthcare accessible to all. We have been making plans only on paper. says Dr. Narendra Kumar Pandey.[4]
Narendra Kumar Pandey was born on 1 January 1951, in the remote village of Bishnupura, in Saran district of Bihar, India.[5] He was the eldest of three children born to Jagat Pandey, a village head master, and Vidya Pandey.[2] For his early education, he studied in the local village school where one of his uncles was a teacher. However, he had to complete his school education at different locations when his father joined the central government service and was posted at various locations across northern India. Pandey chose a medical career, inspired by one of his uncles who was a medical practitioner, and joined Patna Medical College where he acquired his medical degree of MBBS, in 1974, and completed his residency there.[2]
Pandey started his career at the Danapore Block Hospital, a suburb near Patna city, and continued there for one year.[citation needed] While working at the Block hospital, he married Padma, a student of Patna Science College, in 1975. Disillusioned with the work at Block hospital, which consisted of mainly vasectomies, Pandey moved to London in 1976, where he got an opportunity to study further in the city. The move to London opened up new avenues for Pandey and he redid his internship at the Ashford Hospital, London, in surgery, and at the Aberystwyth District General Hospital and North Devon District Hospital, in orthopedics.[1] He also worked at the District Hospital, in Barnstable. He did his FACS at the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh, in 1982, and continued in the UK, working at various hospitals like Hammersmith Hospital, Kings College, Charing Cross Hospital, and Middle Sex Hospital. His stay in UK also gave him opportunities to work and study under many renowned surgeons like Sir Alfred Patrick M. Forrest, Professor Mansel, Professor Blumgart and Professor Russell, and gain experience in liver and pancreatic surgery and minimal access surgery.[2]
Pandey returned to India in 1984 and joined Fortis Escorts Hospital, Faridabad, in the capacity of a consultant and worked there till 2007 when he moved out as the executive director of the Hospital. He also served as a director board member of the Fortis Escorts Heart Institute, Delhi, during that time.[2] By this time, his mind was set on building a medical centre of his own and he founded the Asian Institute of Medical Sciences in 2010.
Narendra Kumar Pandey lives in Faridabad with the families of his four children, Anupam, Neha, Prashant, and Smriti, and together they look after the running of the hospital.[2]
Achievements and legacy
Besides his services as one of the leading thoracic surgeons in India, Pandey is credited with pioneering work in Video-assisted thoracoscopic surgery.[6] He has also conducted various seminars, workshops and training programmes in general surgery.[2] However, the legacy Pandey has left is the medical institution he has founded, Asian Institute of Medical Sciences.[7]
Asian Institute of Medical Sciences
Narendra Kumar Pandey founded the Asian Institute of Medical Sciences on 1 February 2010.[6][8] The institute is a super specialty tertiary care medical institution, in Faridabad.[9] and is reported to have facilities to accommodate 350 in-patients at a time. The institute is claimed to provide the patients with preventive, diagnostic, therapeutic, rehabilitative, palliative and support services. Pandey is the chairman and managing director of the institution[1] and his sons and daughters and their families assist Pandey in running the institution. The hospital is accredited by National Accreditation Board for Hospitals & Healthcare Providers (NABH) and National Accreditation Board for Testing and Calibration Laboratories (NABL).[2]
Positions
Pandey holds many positions:
Chairman and Managing Director - Asian Institute of Medical Sciences[citation needed]
The Delhi Doctors' Association, in 1997, conferred the Distinguished Service Award on Pandey. He also received Betadine Achievement Award from the Association of Surgeons of India in 2010. The Teerthanker Mahaveer University, 2013, awarded him the Doctor of Science (Honoris Causa).[2][8]
^ ab"Padma Awards Announced". Circular. Press Information Bureau, Government of India. 25 January 2014. Archived from the original on 22 February 2014. Retrieved 23 August 2014.