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When Business and Healthcare Unite

It is not often that you see business and healthcare unite successfully. But occasionally they do, as in the current success story that is mee healthcare. Their combination of business and healthcare provision is the work of Gail Lese. Since the beginning of 2012 Lese has been busy bringing healthcare to the people. She believes, it is important to meet the patients’ expectations in terms of high-quality service as well as convenience. Her plan, therefore, is as simple as it is brilliant. Bringing healthcare to the people means going where the people are: mee healthcare centres are located in shopping areas with high footfall – shopping malls or the high street – and they all work on extended opening hours in order to accommodate clients who are working full-time.

“Mee healthcare is a new approach in the delivery of healthcare; enabling customers to benefit from a range of services at accessible prices including hearing, vision, dental and health checks, provided by state-of-the-art, one-stop clinics at convenient locations”, explains Lese the concept behind mee. “By combining these services under one roof, mee healthcare aims to provide the highest quality customer service, and to support better outcomes and earlier detection of underlying health issues for our patients.” So far mee is doing just that in four centres throughout the UK. The first three mee healthcare centres were launched earlier this year in Sainsbury’s Leeds, Ely and Cheltenham. Number four opened at the end of November 2012 in King’s Lynn.

The cooperation with Sainsbury’s is another example for Lese’s inspired linking of business and healthcare. “I’m delighted that we are continuing to extend our relationship with Sainsbury’s,” enthuses Lese. By being placing the healthcare provider in the premises of the well-known supermarket chain, mee benefits from the commercial pull of the retailer while boosting Sainsbury’s attractions by providing medical services in places that are easily accessible but not usually used for healthcare facilities.

The founder and CEO of mee healthcare herself is the perfect example of the successful linking of business sense and altruistic work, by the way. Born and educated in the US, Lese received her doctorate in medicine in Cornell University before taking a business degree in Harvard Business School. Even after turning to portfolio management during her stint as a fund leader, Lese’s commitment to helping people never decreased. These two interests eventually culminated in the founding of both Allele fund, an investment fund that exclusively invests in healthcare companies world-wide, and mee healthcare.

"I’m delighted to announce the continual expansion of mee healthcare. I am tremendously honoured that we are able to open new centres and support the local communities in which we work, despite significant pressure in the retail space across the country,”, Lese says. Until the end of the year, mee healthcare will be opening three further centres in partnership with Sainsbury’s in Northampton (Weedon Road), Gravesend, Kent (Pepper Hill) and Bristol (Castle Court), bringing the total number of mee healthcare centres throughout the United Kingdom to seven.