Arham Dev Vasisht, the owner and Managing Director of Thika School of Medical & Health Sciences and Thika Nursing Homes, has made headlines for his impressive entrepreneurial journey. Despite starting from humble beginnings, he has achieved remarkable success in the medical field.
Well, let us take a look at his biography:
Background:
Dr. Barham Dev Vasisht is the owner and Managing Director of Thika School of Medical & Health Sciences and Thika Nursing Homes.Â
Dr. Barham was born in India and grew up in a humble family that struggled to make ends meet. During an interview with Citizen TV, he revealed that he attended public schools because his parents could not afford to take him to a private institution.
Dr. Barham pursued medicine in university, and after graduating, he relocated to Kenya, where he started his career in the medical field, earning Ksh5,000 per month.Â
The Ministry of Health employed him in the government of Kenya for five years at Nyeri Provincial General Hospital. From there, he came to Thika Nursing Homes, where he was used for three years as a resident doctor.
Acquiring Thika Nursing Homes:
It is at Thika Nursing Homes where Dr. Barham was first introduced to the business angle of the medical profession.
 He said he was not prepared to become a director and had to learn on the job.Â
“I was just thrown into it. It was not by choice because the then director had to go to the US, and I was told to run the hospital. I had a lot of challenges because my background is not in the business field,” he explained.
Dr. Barham ran the hospital as director for some time before a special arrangement to take over ownership of the business came up.Â
The entrepreneur needed money to buy the hospital but told the owner that he would take over the management until he understood the hospital system as he kickstarted the payments process.Â
It took him almost five years to completely clear the debt. The hospital is located along Thika – Garissa highway, about 1 kilometer past Makongeni.
Starting Thika School of Medical & Health Sciences:
While running Thika Nursing Homes, Dr. Barham got the idea of starting a medical college.
 “During my job, I came across a very concerning challenge. That challenge basically was a shortage of trained and qualified medical professionals. With that vision in mind, I started Thika School of Medical & Health Sciences with just one or two rooms in 2010,” he explained.Â
Initially, the school trained community health workers before getting the first eight students enrolled in a medical course.Â
Thika Nursing Homes absorbed the students upon completion of their studies.
Two years since the school was started, the student population has grown from eight to over eight hundred students.Â
Today, the school offers over 25 courses with over 9,000 students across 4 campuses: Thika, the main campus, Mombasa, Kisumu, and Kitui. Dr. Barham serves as the Chairman of the institution.
Challenges with Bank of Baroda:
Thika Nursing Homes and Thika School of Medical & Health Sciences borrowed Ksh 370 million from the Bank of Baroda.Â
However, when the Covid-19 pandemic struck in 2020, the bank struggled with repayments, which led to the bank appointing PVR Rao and Swaroop Rao as administrators.
Dr. Barham moved to court, and in November 2021, he obtained a court order blocking the bank and administrators from taking over the institutions’ operations. The order was served pending a hearing and determination of the case.
In January 2022, the Bank of Baroda and the two administrators took over the institution after the High Court discharged the temporary orders.Â
Despite the legal battles with the bank, Dr. Barham remains optimistic about the future of his institutions. He believes that with hard work and determination, he will overcome the current challenges and continue to make a significant impact in the medical field in Kenya.
