On Sunday 1st April 2018, the official opening of St. Ive Clinic, Abeokuta took place. It was performed by Senator Ibikunle Amosun, the governor of Ogun State who was ably represented by the Ogun State S.S.G. The hospital is located at 3, Olatunde Abudu Close, Ibara Housing Estate, Abeokuta, Ogun State. St. Ives is one of the leading and most respected private healthcare organizations in Nigeria. Services include IVF and Fertility Clinic, St. Ives Healthcare Organisation offers dedicated Specialist Medical Services in all matters of women, children and family health care.
After the launching, City People’s Publisher SEYE KEHINDE spoke to the founder of St. Ives Dr. Okewale on why the management of St. Ives Clinic opened a branch in Abeokuta. Below are excepts of the interview.
What made you think Abeokuta needs a new branch of St. Ives?
St. Ives runs 2 specialist hospitals in Lagos. One in Ikeja. The other in Ikoyi we also run 2 IVF and Fertility Clinics we also have one family Clinic, that just stands alone. We also have one HMO, Health Maintenance Organisation realized that over the years, when we do our yearly promo for people who cannot afford IVF (We’ve been doing that for the past 10 years) from our statistics a sizeable number of people who came for the promo, come from Ogun State. And a sizeable number of people who come for the promo come from Abeokuta. And we have had a lot of success with them. So after they get pregnant we refer them back to the Federal Medical Centre (FMC) in Abeokuta or the General Hospital. So we have a working relationship with such patient. They get to hear about our promo and they come here on their own.
When we were looking at our statistics we began to ask ourselves the question why that axis? We realized there were no IVF fertility clinics in Ogun State despite the fact that Ogun State is so close to Lagos. So, that was one reason. The 2nd reason is that the kind of Infrastructure developments going on in Ogun State right now is such that we want to be part of.
Thirdly we have this property in Abeokuta that has been lying there for quite sometime. When we put all these things together we just felt having an IVF fertility clinic will be a first step in Ogun State. That is why we made a more into Ogun State.
How has it been trying to run your 2 hospitals in Lagos and now the 3rd one?
What we have done over the years is that each of those Units have there own medical directors. Our Ikoyi branch has a Consultant/Gynaecologist running it. He is the Medical Director, St. Ives Hospital, Ikoyi. The one at Opebi has its won Medical Director as well. Again its headed by another Consultant/ Obstetrician & Gynaecologist. The family clinic, off Toyin street, has its own Medical director who was runs the day-to-day activity Abeokuta also has a Consultant/Gynaechologist. Because its a new project, I will be going there often until it is put on a good footing. It’s the same thing as our HMO. It has a CMO and MD that runs it. We always recruit the right personnel to man it.
What’s your role in all these?
I play a floating role. I am like the thinker behind the whole process. Most of the time, I am thinking. What next should we do? I am just overseeing all that is happening within the Group.
But my base is still at the Salvation Road Hospital, here in Lagos because I still see some private patients that will not see any other doctor except me.
How were you able to build St. Ives Hospital into a big brand?
Everything stems from God. He gives the inspiration. One thing I had always known since I came back to Nigeria in 1996 was I could not be jack of all trade. Specialisation is the word. Specialisation is the issue. I am a Gynecologist. That is my strength. I made a conscious effort not to veer away too much from my area of strength which is women.
So from day one people had always known I am a Gynecologist. So when I started St. Ives it was purely a woman’s hospital over the years people came to know the hospital for women issues, then from there the women will obviously bring their children along so we added the Paediatric arm to the business. When the women and children come to the hospital, obviously they will bring their husbands and daddies.
That is our general practice arm came in but we never lost focus of our core brand which is women and their families. And I think this rubbed off when we were thinking of this radio station. That is it. Even the IVF that we do that made us famous with the infertility part still came from the women perspective.
How old is St. Ives Hospital?
St. Ives Hospital 21. I came back in 1996 and I started St. Ives in July of that year at Aromire near Adeniyi Jones, Lagos.
What has kept you going all these years?
Perseverance. Then being true to ones calling. The first 5 to 6 years was very tough. I felt like just packing it up and going back to the UK at that time. With time people got to know about us. Its purely perseverance.
How did you coin the name St. Ives?
There is a small town in the UK, during my post graduate study in the UK, it is a small tourist Island called St. Ives. I worked there. The mainstay of the community is tourism. The name of the town itself is St. Ives, I had one of the best times of my life in the UK at that time. So, I like the name St. Ives, I felt its a name I would want to use for anything I want to do in my later years.
So when the idea came for me to set up a hospital it was very easy to pick the name St. Ives purely because of the town I worked at that time.
Can you take us back to your early days? Where were you born? Where did you grow up?
I was born in Abeokuta. I spent the major part of my life in Ibadan. My primary school was at Abadina, inside University of Ibadan. My initial secondary school up to Form 4 was in Layola College in Ibadan.
Then in 1976 the states were created and my father moved to Abeokuta, Ogun State, the state capital and he took me along. He didn’t feel comfortable enough to live me alone in Ibadan. So, I completed my secondary school in Abeokuta at African Church Grammar School. I went to Ogun State Polytechnic for my A’levels and I went back to Ibadan for the University.
In those early years did Medicine play a major thought in your mind?
No. Not at all. In my growing up years, all I thought about, frankly speaking was broadcasting, because my father was a broadcaster. I remember my growing up years all the people who had any sort of influence on our growing up years as a family were broadcasters. This was in the days of WNTV/WNBS, the Toun Adeyemi, the Anike Agbaje Williams, the Tunji Oyelana’s the Fabio Lanipekuns, everything that I was exposed to at that point in time in my life was broadcasting.
When I got to Abeokuta it was the same thing. All the people that surrounded all that I did were broadcasters. The Yomi Onabolu’s and the rest. But I was strong in Science by the time I was doing my school cert in 1978 the 1st test tube baby came along in Nigeria. This was a time we were all thinking of what to do and what not to do. It was a momentous period. I read it in the newspaper. It was the equivalent in medicine at that time of man going to the moon as at that time.
That was how big it was. There was so much controversy the churches were against it. Because I lived in a broadcaster house I use to read papers, we got to read a whole pile of it from the office. So my interest in medicine started from there. So I veered in that direction. The broadcasting bug caught up with my sister and she went in the broadcasting life.
What influence did your dad have on you because I can see you talk about him a lot?
Yes, I do. They came from a totally different generation. They were a civil servants, middle class, contented, their lifestyle was better than ours. I remember he comes back from work, 3.30/4.30pm changes into his shorts and goes to Abeokuta Sports Club to play Tennis till 7pm and he is back home for the network news at 9pm. It was a very simple lifestyle. We lacked nothing. We lived in one big community in Housing in Abeokuta. Not the kind of rat race we are living. Their generation was contented. They were not acquisitive in nature. They were not environs. They had a strong impact on us. Unfortunately they died young for strange reasons. He was a good role model,
When Dr. Tunde Okewale looks back at all he has been able to achieve in the last few years, how does it make you feel?
I think I just thank God because I am a very restless person by nature, restless in the fact that I believe that no year should go bye without making an achievement. I don’t know where I got that philosophy from, that every year you must do something new. That every year something new must.
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