Samit Kumar Biswas, the CEO of Advatech Health care is trying to bring medical revolution for disabled people in the UK. His company Advatech was launched in Kolkata when Samit was exploring the opportunities of Medical Tourism for India. Having had a 20+ years experience in the healthcare industry Samit was well networked with all the major hospitals in India. During the process of moving patients, tissues and samples from one region to another, it became apparent that there were clear gaps in organising efficient medical transport.
Launched as India's first tech based Medical tourism and private service event in Kolkata, it was attended by various dignitaries including the British Deputy High Commissioner and Healthcare UK’s senior officials. Speaking to Asian Voice, Samit said, “Looking into the propositions and deliverables, the British High Commission invited us to set up our business in the UK. Then on 17 February 2012 we set up our business in the UK.”
Born in Katwa, East Bardhaman, Samit has a degree in Zoology from Katwa College and an MBA from Indian Institute of Foreign Trade (IIFT). “I always wanted to be a doctor since childhood, as well as a businessman,” Samit added with a smile.
But after working for various MNCs for almost 14 years and looking into the healthcare service delivery and awareness gap in the society, he decided to start Advatech Healthcare in 2010, with a focus on patient services.
He lived in Kolkata till he moved to the UK, and now lives with family in Westcliff-on-Sea, Essex.
Since 2012 till end on 2015 Samit did some extensive market studies in London, Leicester and Leeds. Their initial business model in India was Medical Tourism and Ambulance services. But looking into the current demand in the UK healthcare markets they decided to launch non-emergency medical transportation services - Hippo Cabs. Hippo in Greek means Disability.
Samit told Asian Voice, “In Kolkata we were running the Ambulance business and incidentally we launched World’s First Android based mobile application - BookMyAmbulance. So when we came here, we started approaching various ambulance service providers like London Ambulance Services, Yorkshire Ambulance Services and NHS as well. But being a healthcare Start-Up it was very difficult to convince them about our solutions.
“At the same time lots of disabled peoples and long term medically challenged patients are struggling for their day to day transportation. NHS A&E has an all time high waiting list for patients. Hospital bed rotation was all time low. That was causing a huge expenses to the NHS and emergency patients could not getting the required admission. Then we decided to focus on non-emergency transportation, instead of emergency ambulance services and launched Hippo Cabs.
“Looking into the 11.4 millions disabled peoples in the UK and almost 15% of the Global population being disabled - this is the need of the hour for both disabled people and patients with long term medical conditions.”
But with recession and market instabilities, why did he choose the UK? Samit said, “NHS & Healthcare in the UK is considered as 'Gold Standard' in the World . So if we are doing something in healthcare, we should learn from the leader. Incidentally our launch event in Kolkata was attained by the UK officials and they invited us to set up a business in the UK.” As of now Advatech is operating in Southend-on-Sea in Essex with their 70+ different types of wheelchair access vehicles (WAV) and supporting 20 care homes, two NHS hospitals, 2 GP Surgeries and few private hospitals. They have also applied for £45 million worth of contracts from four NHS Trusts.
Though the business is still not profitable in the UK, Samit connects with the community through local activities, making people aware about their services.
He concluded by saying, “Our aim is to become the UBER for disabled transportation or non-emergency transportation in the Global market and be the UK’s answer to the UBER.”
