Vitaly Volkov: "We did not feel a break from COVID-19 in the Kuban"

Vitaly Volkov, General DIRECTOR of the Ekaterininskaya Clinic network, on the transformation of the laboratory direction,investments and import substitution in medicine - in an interview with RBC Krasnodar

In the summer of 2022, the increase in the number of patients with CORONAVIRUS infection resumed in the Kuban. Tests for covid-19 may again become the most popular in the diagnostic segment. Vitaly Volkov, General Director of the chain, spoke about how the Ekaterininskaya Clinic plans to develop under the conditions of sanctions, and how it is preparing for the return of the coronavirus.

- Vitaly Yuryevich, now everyone is anxiously watching how, after a long break, the incidence of COVID-19 has begun to grow again. Is your clinic ready for a new round of the disease?

We didn't feel like a long break. The incidence decreased, but the coronavirus did not completely disappear. In the total volume of our laboratory diagnostics, the share of tests for COVID-19 was still at the level of 10-15% in July, and today this figure is growing daily.

Coronavirus has become our new reality in which we work. Diagnostics for COVID-19, as before, is carried out daily, the entire staff of laboratory service experts has been retained in full force. We are still ready to carry out PCR diagnostics on the road.

― During the period of lowering the covid load, laboratories lost part of their revenue. What have you done to replace retiring income?

- Objectively, such a situation should have come. We clearly understood this, so this period was used to the maximum for the development of the laboratory - both the covid division and other zones.

We purchased and launched several units of new equipment, upgraded existing devices. For some areas of diagnostics, there are several copies of the device in order to withstand all the deadlines for the readiness of analyzes during peak loads.

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Along with the retrofitting of the laboratory, we continue to develop service options. Today, our clinics have created all the conditions for taking tests from children from birth, we are actively promoting the direction of taking tests where it is convenient for the patient: at home, in the office or in the country. In part, we spied this service from a retailer. The client, receiving a certain service in the service market, begins to transfer his experience to other areas.

- In the current conditions, business is experiencing difficulties with the purchase of imported equipment and components. But at the same time you are talking about large volumes of purchases. Or is it domestic devices?

- No, not domestic. About 98% of our equipment is from European manufacturers. I am not biased towards the Russian production of medical diagnostic devices and, admittedly, over the past decade I have been observing a sharp increase in the class of domestic analyzers.

However, our strategy is to acquire the best equipment in the industry, and this high level is mainly provided by manufacturers in the usa and Western Europe.

Procurement, of course, is now costly, with supplies still difficult, but we are finding ways. We also continue to use English, Swiss and German reagents.

- Do you predict that in the future the supply situation will become even more complicated?

- Of course, medicine has faced a number of difficulties - the usual logistics of reagent delivery has been disrupted, a number of equipment lines cannot be bought for any money, some supplier companies have left the Russian market altogether. Our confidence is ensured by the fact that we radically upgraded our fleet in 2021, having invested about 180 million rubles at that time.

It is difficult to predict the development of the situation with supplies for the future, since the market is still pretty stormy - the withdrawal of foreign manufacturers from the Russian market has hit them first of all. But new logistics chains have already been created through third countries, and the exchange rate allows us not to compromise and keep the quality of services at a given level.

- The trend of modern business is to adapt in time to any needs of the market. Do you agree with this?

- Definitely yes. And our laboratory development case is an excellent confirmation of this. We work in a highly competitive field, where there are strong players at the federal and regional levels. For confident development, we constantly improve the product, analyze what the patient expects from us, and implement it in our business.

If we go back a few months, our laboratory has repeatedly set records for the speed of testing for coronavirus - the results are ready within three hours. We were the first in the Southern Federal District to introduce highly sensitive tests for COVID-19, which made it possible to determine the presence of the virus in the body even before the onset of symptoms. From our side, this is a quick response to the main request of the market: “When will the test be ready?”.

- And the last question: what are your plans for the near future? How has the development strategy of the clique changed in our difficult times?

- The concept of the laboratory service of the clinic remains the same - an integrated approach to HEALTH. We practically do not outsource anything and are responsible for the patient at every stage - the initial appointment, instrumental diagnostics, and laboratory tests are carried out by ourselves. In general, our strategy remains unchanged - uncompromising quality of laboratory services, which the consumer will choose.