Interview

‘Wellspring Strongly Bases Itself on Clinical Medicine Approach’

In an exclusive parley, Dr Swati Piramal, Director, NPIL and Wellspring Pathlab-Diagnostics, speaks to Nayantara Som about the genesis, business plans and growth of the chain of laboratories

You were a young medical student when the idea about setting up Wellspring came about. How?

Earlier, the entire area (where Wellspring is now situated) was a mill land area owned by my father-in-law. As a student, every time, I passed this road, I saw children paralysed with polio. I wanted to change the world and believed that you could prevent it only by a vaccine. I first started an immunisation centre on the ground floor (of the present building of Wellspring) in a little shed. People actually believed that polio was a curse. I got all my college friends together and convinced these mill workers that polio is a disease and not a curse. Our immunisation then started to grow and gradually, we started a pathology laboratory. I never dreamt that it will diversify into 35 cities. At that time, I did everything right from the marketing to accounting. We did marketing with a lot of innovations. I used to find that mothers would come for vaccines but they would take one dose instead of three. So then from my father-in-law's mill, I went to the material wing, got 10 meters of cloth and once these mothers completed their three months, the material would be gifted to them. It worked like wonders. My dream of having a no polio zone came true. I then subsequently started educating mothers and it was these mothers who later became health workers for us.

How do you make the tests available cost-effective for the masses?

When I started out, to my horror, I found that most of the labs did not perform any tests. People in remote areas would give in Rs 50 for tests just for nothing. Labs would come up with a fake report. The study which I had done showed that people who would go in for tests at public hospitals, would travel miles to get their tests done and pay a fortune. So the money is there but not the quality and the trust. Wellspring is aiming at, spreading these clinics to almost all the places. By doing so, we are in a way contributing for cost-effectiveness.

Wellspring has acquired Jhankaria imaging recently. Are there plans to invest in tele-radiology centres in key cities?

Yes, we will continue our role in radiology as well as pathology and we may look into other areas as well. In manufacturing production, quality is an important ingredient so also in pathology. This is one place where doctors work together in teams. This is where you can put in all the principals of good management, put in result, measure the outcomes, replicate the quality in other areas.

Radiology, to do it across India is quiet a challenge. I was in Jaipur and the state of the particular hospital I visited was such that there isn't even a simple X-Ray because there is no electricity. So, these are some of the challenges we face when we if we venture into radiology.

Recently, Wellspring has acquired the remaining 40 per cent in its joint venture with Dr Phadke's Path Labs for Rs 14 crore. What was the main aim behind this acquisition?

Dr Phadke is one of our star doctors and we wanted him for the nation wide rollout of Wellspring. Whereas in a joint venture, he would be focusing on Mumbai. We wanted him to contribute to the rest of the India- whether it is North India, South India and East, so that was the only way to free him from JV operations in the venture.

Could you elaborate on the Medivan project?

Medivan is the real need of the hour. If you cut the pie of healthcare costs for a patient, transportation will constitute 15-16 per cent. So we said, why cannot we have a van which will generate electricity send it to large factories where they have no medical facilities. These factories have 400-500 employees who need an annual check up. It has a very good response in rural areas. It is in cities like Hyderabad, Mumbai and we are planning to roll it out to other cities as well.

Wellspring is also involved in genomic research. Can you elaborate?

We have closed it down. This was in partnership with CSIR, because we filed a couple of patents and then we realised that the burn was extremely high. As it went past ahead we could not support the project because it was more on fundamental research so we returned it to the government.

How does Wellspring cope up with the intense competition in the market?

There are very few good players in the market, but last year, Wellspring attained leadership in the field. The idea of a national rollout, the national diagnostic method which I had conceived five-six years ago, is to give patients customer service very strongly based on doctors. That is Wellspring's image model and everybody else's model is not like that. Others have a central lab and then there are little collection centres and that goes back to the central labs but I feel that takes a patient away from the doctor. I don't think that is an appropriate model. Because at the end of the day, the doctors are the centre for a patient.

Any plans in the future to tap the Government sector?

In Indore, we opened a radiology lab which is in a Government centre. It is a very good model of public private partnership. And we like to do more in other states. But the idea is that the State Government must also participate and be forthcoming to ventures. Our first experiment was in Madhya Pradesh. And I hope it does well and by next year we will try and replicate it in other areas. It takes a long time to convince the Government but once they are sincere and you are willing to work for the betterment of the country they are cooperative.

Looking back what do you believe is the strength of Wellspring for such a wide network?

Wellspring relies on trust, on good customer care service, on a mission that it wants to make a difference, it relies very strongly on a doctor, which I call the hub and spoke model. The hub is in a big city while the spoke goes out to the smaller cities.

What have been the growth and the overall turnover of the Wellspring this fiscal year?

We hope to hit Rs 90 crore this year-well on track and I will smile when it hits a century because it started so small.

How do you perceive Wellspring in the next five years?

My dream is to have a Wellspring in every city. I want it to deal with electricity, with rural areas, multiple vans penetrating every nook and corner of the country

Can we see a Wellspring chain of hospitals in the near future?

No, I don't think I am going to get into the businesso hospitals as it is a different model. They are more centred in one place rather than go nationally. Their gestation period is very long. For my path labs, it is not that long. This is a much better focus for Wellspring if we concentrate only on path labs.

nayantara.som@expresindia.com