Death of a clinic- The corporate impact
on Healthcare Business
Normally the clinics in the city like
Mumbai are moved to different places for many reason the commonest one is the
need of larger space & not getting the extension on the lease. There is another
possibility of doctor moving out of the town or getting too old to attend the
clinic or due to some physical inability or ultimately the death of the doctor
leads to closer of the clinic. This is absolutely an unorganized sector
business. There is no legal protection either to the doctor or the staff
working in the clinic.
Many of the staff members of the clinic
are so associated as they are working there from the day of inception of the
clinic. There skill sets are so developed to suit the activity of the clinic
under that individual doctor.
But now a new set of clinics are being
opened. these are owned by businessman & investors & doctors work there
- There are many ways of doctor getting involved in the operation of the clinic
but do not have the ownership. There is another set as Polyclinics - the places
are owned by some investor & he offers the place on hourly contract. There
are no personal belongings allowed in such places. So the doctor do not have
any bonding developed with the staff & the places.
I was working with a Chain - One of the
very famous & old brand in the Ayurvedic pharma industry of the company.
They wanted to foray in to the healthcare business. I was hired keeping in mind
the planned development of the concept & run the chain. I closed down my
clinic & started afresh with the brand in a newer place accommodating all
my old staff. It was the first transformation but was a shift from the clinic.
I became the part of a larger corporate unit. In the 100 months we worked together
I have seen many clinics opened & shut. There was never a fixed strategy as
such in place but I was confident as there was continuous growth. I was reaping
the corporate benefits of the business without realizing that I was loosing my
individual identity & all my efforts & my clinical knowledge &
management skills were labeled as owned by the company. Everything was going on
smoothly & we were expanding as the requirement was growing on . we started
expanding our wings in different suburbs. In the process some of the clinics
were closed down & replaced by other one. This has resulted in diluting the
business at core center.
There were many other factors which had
seen deterioration which was beyond the leveraging from my own growing
practice. It was the first red sign ignored by me. We saw a lack of quality in
the supplied goods as they were been stored fore than the desired period. The
unnecessary & unexplained larger purchases eroded the profit of the
company. slowly the company started reducing the perks which did not yield in
any good. Slowly the curbs sterted on essential goods & staff . This
resulted in further deterioration in the business & income. Company started
closing down its own clinics & started handing it over to junior doctors
under the pretext of franchising it . In the initial phases of the franchisee
the senior consultants were involved slowly replacing it by only junior people
. This was second red signal.
Me as consultant got my act together &
tried to stop the tide going against it & tried to maintain business. In
the entire process of being working under a brand we diluted our
professional identity. There was some
business loss, it was 3 months of loss against the 7 years of extensive profit.
But the corporate calculation & thinking follows the instinctive route
& wanted to change the status of the clinic & relationship with the
consultant. resulting into sudden death of the clinic.
Staff getting upset, new set up has to be
created loosing all the efforts taken for the development of a brand .
There is always a feeling of being used ,
Providing you a smaller benefit - the larger profit has been siphoned off.
One fine day all of a sudden you are told
that the clinic is going to shut. It's a great heartening feeling where you feel
helpless, a disaster in terms of planning of life. The staff is devastated, the
patients are uncertain.
I am a little luckier because my request
of LL with the landlord was accepted & I could continue working from the
same place. I could not retain the same staff in the same quantity so diluted
it , replaced few,
Starting afresh without advertising
support - which you are used to - itself was a task. It took 6 months to
overcome & once again float yourself stronger than you were. ment like
This death has taught me many things- the
unwritten rules of corporate - where profit is the only understood word. There
is no place for human relationship & loyalty. Money is the only law. Profit
is the phrase everybody wanted to hear. Not accepting the natural laws of ups
& down or the cyclical nature of business. The normally buffered shocks in
a single owner clinic are not tolerated .
It teaches you many things about the staff
& colleagues in Mumbai. I had stopped my operations in Aurangabad 11 years
ago since I shifted to Mumbai at that point of time. The process was so
gracefully carried out that my staff who was working with me still equally is
faithful despite being not anymore employed.
This is in stark contrast with
unceremonious detrenchment like process
. It is not illegal, there was no breach as such though certain contracts were
broken but more so ever the the
promising words were not honoured. This teaches you many a thing
Death of a clinic - it's a experience
beyond tolerance. Some would loose everything he had including the self
respect. It's a task in itself to hold you back- It teaches you a lot of things
