LG`s sarkari clinic in Sakhipur

SOCIAL ENTERPRISE

The clinic, started by LG Electronics, opens in the morning. Patients come from 25 villages. One of them says: "The sarkari dispensary has been here for two years."

The villagers are yet to realise that the clinic is run by a private company. A senior official of the company was shocked to know that the villagers don't know that LG runs the clinic. The villagers obviously cannot read the signboards.

Sunita Deola waits patiently with two children, both suffering from diarrhoea. She has brought along her neighbour who has been unable to conceive and has had miscarriages. But there is no gynaecologist available.

Yasho V Varma, director, human resources, LG, says: "LG runs this clinic as part of its corporate social responsibility. It does not believe in having a dedicated wing or a foundation. It is part of our regular job."

The salaries of the doctors are paid to Kailash Hospital, a private unit in Greater Noida. The doctors spend half their day traveling in the mobile van and the rest in the Sakhipur dispensary.

The company organises four health camps a month and regularly conducts cataract operations in collaboration with Eye Care, another hospital in the city. The cost to LG is Rs 50,000 a month for two doctors. A doctors also sits in the companyclinic.

Varma says: "We cover 45 villages through the van and this clinic."

A similar model functions in Pune where LG has another plant. The total spend a year is about Rs 20 crore, Varma says.