Ishiqa Multani: Leadership In Healthcare Now Means Leading Culture, Not Just Hospitals

As India enters a decisive decade of healthcare transformation, few leaders speak as candidly or as boldly as Ishiqa Multani, administrator, Sagar Hospital shaping one of the country’s fastest-modernising healthcare ecosystems. In this conversation, she discusses why leadership in healthcare must expand far beyond budgets, beds, and buildings, and how a new generation of patients are forcing institutions to rethink their very identity.

Q: Ms. Multani, you’ve been identified as one of the emerging voices redefining healthcare leadership. What is the biggest shift India is witnessing today?

A: The biggest shift is that leadership can no longer be operational alone, it must be cultural.

Hospitals aren’t just treating illnesses anymore; they are shaping trust, human experiences, emotional safety, and long-term wellbeing. Today’s patient expects transparency, dignity, and efficiency. And leaders must create systems that deliver this consistently. The old model where leadership was confined to compliance and administration is over. We are entering an era where leaders must think like designers, behavioural architects, and futurists who anticipate what healthcare should feel like, not just what it should cure.

Q: What leadership priorities need urgent redefinition within Indian hospitals?

A: Three areas require immediate focus. First, experience governance must be elevated to the leadership table. Patient experience shouldn’t be a department, it should be a board-level responsibility. Second, technology strategy must be purpose-driven. Digital systems should reduce friction, shorten queues, offer clarity in billing, and personalise communication. Leaders must ensure tech serves people, not the other way around. Third, people leadership matters more than infrastructure. A hospital’s success is determined by how its people behave under pressure, communicate with empathy, and treat patients with respect. Leaders must build cultures, not just facilities.

Q: You’ve spoken about the rise of the “new Indian patient.” What does s/he expect from healthcare leaders?

A: S/he expects accountability. S/he expects predictability. And s/he expects to be heard. This new patient is informed, involved, and unwilling to tolerate outdated attitudes. S/he values comfort, privacy, transparent communication, and trust. Leaders must acknowledge their influence almost every health decision at the family level. Therefore, systems must be built around dignity and design principles that make their experience smoother, safer, and emotionally supported.

Q: Emotional health is often ignored in healthcare leadership conversations. Why does it matter now?

A: Because emotional safety is clinical safety. Women come into hospitals carrying multiple layers: fear, responsibility, decision fatigue, and societal pressure. If leadership does not recognise this, the system becomes mechanistic and tone-deaf. Integrating counselling, design that reduces anxiety, softer staff behaviour, and supportive environments is not a luxury, it is leadership maturity. Emotional wellbeing must be embedded into operations, not treated as an afterthought.

Q: Leaders often focus heavily on technology and capital projects. What is underestimated the most?

A: Culture. Machines do not build trust, people do. A strong culture aligns clinical excellence with compassion, discipline, and responsiveness. Leadership must be present, visible, and value-driven. This is what keeps hospitals functioning during crises and what keeps patients loyal in the long term.

Q: What will define healthcare leadership in 2030?

A: Leaders who combine precision with humanity. Leaders who champion preventive care, embrace AI intelligently, and prioritise design-led environments. Most importantly, leaders who understand that healthcare is not an industry of transactions, it is a system that safeguards dignity. The future belongs to those who lead not just with strategy, but with soul.