Georgia Healthcare Group PLC Annual Report 2018 Strategic Report Resources and responsibilities continued Mandatory pension fund Social matters In January 2019, a new pension law became effective in Georgia The Group considers the interests of its main stakeholders – patients, introducing a mandatory accumulative pension scheme. According to customers, shareholders, employees and society – when developing the law, employees are required to contribute 2% of their earnings to its strategy and operations improvement processes. We strive to their retirement savings, and employers are required to add the same support public welfare with all our business activities by developing amount, while the Government’s contribution depends on employee’s socially-oriented services, implementing responsible approaches to income and varies from 0% to 2%. Participation in the pension fund is our business operations and carrying out sponsorship and charitable obligatory for the employees under the age of 40. GHG will to invest activities. In doing so, we follow our undertakings in respect of social approximately GEL 3.3 million in 2019, in the mandatory pension and community matters set out in our Environmental and Social Policy. benefit for our employees. The Group is proud to serve three-quarters of the Georgian population Corporate culture development and makes every effort to promote a healthy lifestyle. We use our We seek to achieve a high level of employee satisfaction. medical expertise in our social initiatives to focus primarily on providing Each year, we launch a few projects to develop our corporate pro bono medical assistance, developing medical infrastructure and culture and increase employee egageent: improving the health awareness of the Georgian population. • Another successful project was Work and Rest – Rotation programme for our employees working in similar positions at our In 2018, the Group spent a total of c.GEL 1 million to finance different hospitals to share experience and knowledge with one another. initiatives to benefit broader society, some of which are listed below: • GHG Football Championship 2018 – An initiative promoting healthy lifestyle. 11 teams, a total of 120 employees participated. Free medical check-ups • GHG Brain Ring – Intellectual competition among 18 teams, Our services cover more than 75% of the Georgian population with 150 employees in total. clinics located across the country providing access to high-quality • EVEX Employee Fund – Employees voluntarily contribute 1% medical services, including to those living in remote mountain regions. of their monthly salary to the fund, while GHG adds 50% of the We have put in place a series of measures to ensure that those living amount accumulated each month. The fund is managed solely in more remote regions in the country have access, including regular by our employees through elected committees in each hospital. scheduling of visits of specialists to small towns and villages and The fund currently has 2,900 voluntary participants. In 2018, more transporting patients to larger clinics in urgent cases or where more than GEL 0.5 million has been contributed to the fund and more sophisticated treatment is required. than 1,100 activities have been financed, mainly to support our employees in case of health issues and family member’s illness. The healthcare services business of GHG also provides free regular medical examinations in its facilities throughout the country. In 2018, we carried out 23 different free screening programmes in total, Employees’ engagement in teambuilding activities. benefiting up to 73,000 patients. Such free-of-charge medical check-up and screening programmes include managing tuberculosis, breast cancer screenings, prostate cancer screenings, hepatitis C screening and diabetes programme. In addition, GHG’s specialists deliver free medical services, including examinations and treatments for socially and economically disadvantaged groups of the population. In cooperation with other healthcare institutions, the Group arranges free blood donations for its patients. Affordable care We help patients with chronic diseases get accessible and affordable care by offering special prices at GHG pharmacies for the medications they need on a regular basis. Such patients can register five most frequently used medicines on their GHG loyalty card (loyalty cards are available at our pharmacies) and get extra discount on each purchase. To support parents with young children, we offer them special prices on the most demanded products at our pharmacies. The parents can choose different pharmacy and parapharmacy products, such as diapers, porridge, milk formula, washing gel and moisturising lotion, to register on their loyalty card and get extra discounts. Diabetes in Georgia, and globally, ison the rise, with the incidence rate per 10,000 citizens now reaching 394. To address the disease’s increasing prevalence, we offer 50% discount on test strips to patients with diabetes. 44