Azad Moopen's DM Healthcare has its footprints across the Gulf countries through a chain of 100 units comprising hospitals, clinics, diagnostic centers and pharmacies. He was honored with the Padma Shri from President Pratibha Patil for his contributions to the community in India and across the diasporas.
He said his health care chain employs some 3,000 people and caters for 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, health care 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 society,” he said.
His Rs15 billion DM MedCity project is under way in the Kerala port city of Kochi. Despite being an NRI for over the last 25 years, Moopen has been active in community initiatives and philanthropy in India.
He also plans to set up Community Dialysis Centers (CDC) in all 14 districts of Kerala to provide free and subsidized dialysis facilities to the underprivileged. The first of the CDCs is functional in Vadakara in Kozhikode district, containing 11 dialysis machines at a total investment of Rs10 million.
The second CDC is functioning at Nallalam in Kozhikode and two more are being set up in the state capital, Thiruvananthapuram and Thalassery in the northern district of Kannur.
“We also undertake various community good health programs (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 subsidized medical treatment to the tune of Rs5 million a year.
In 2008, the trust set up a Rural Health Centre in Vazhayoor near Kozhikode and adopted 7,000 impoverished people for comprehensive free OP and IP care. The trust also provides assistance for free pediatric cardiac surgery through a “Save the Little Heart” initiative.
Moopen's contributions to his native village of Kalpakanchery in Kerala include a Rs10 million Human Resource Management Centre to address educational shortfalls under his Naseera & Moopen Foundation, a special needs children's school and a vocational training ITI. The 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 likeminded NRIs.
Together, the initiatives provide direct employment to about 3,000 people. Under his chairmanship, the MIMS Academy Trust,on a 32-acre campus at Karad in Malappuram caters to over 1,100 students across various disciplines, also providing postgraduate courses including in medical and nursing disciplines.
DM Healthcare is also setting up a medical college at Wayanad, a rundown district of Kerala with a sizeable tribal population with no access to modern medical facilities.
The college is expected to open in 2012.
In other parts of India, the Phase II development of “ASTER - Adhar Hospital,” a multi specialty hospital at Kolhapur in Maharashtra, is under way. The hospital is expected to be commissioned by May 2011.
“ASTER - Eye Care,” a comprehensive eye care centre, was launched recently in Faridabad, Haryana, and the plan is to have 20 similar facilities across India in the immediate future.
Moopen, who relocated to Dubai in 1987 after a brief stint on the faculty of the Government Medical College in Kozhikode, has earlier been honored with the “Pravasi Bharatiya Samman Award' by the Government of India (2010), “Arab Health Award” (2010), “Best Doctor Award” by the Government of Kerala (2009) and many others for his service in the field of healthcare and philanthropy.
