The vast majority of Nigerians access healthcare through non-hospital sources — word-of-mouth recommendations, standalone pharmacies, informal providers. Pharm. Mobolaji saw an opportunity to bridge this gap by expanding Purelife’s service offerings from community and wholesale pharmacy to include carehubs: places where people can access primary care, speak with doctors, get vaccinations, wound care, dental services, and other emergency needs.
Her vision was straightforward: build integrated healthcare infrastructure that increases the baseline of accessible care for every Nigerian, affordable enough not to cause financial ruin.
Earlier in the year, she tapped me to work on this expansion. Her vision has always been simple and ambitious. But there was an elephant in the room: I had never set up clinic(s) before and this was genuinely a big leap from clinical medicine and health management consulting.
While I was not clear at the onset, it rapidly became clear to me that my job description was one thing only: to make sure that the business works. At the onset, this meant:
- Working with my M.D on designing the physical clinic space and its utilization
- Equipment purchasing and setup
- Working within the limits of government compliance.
- Patient flow process design (reception to consultation to medication pickup)
- Market research into services, service delivery and pricing
As services picked up, my role has involved evolved to include product campaign design and implementation, business analysis, and operational troubleshooting.
For a generalist like me, what I really enjoyed was the variety. This meant that one day, I am battling Excel trying to design a pricing calculator for products or analysing a business report, the next day I am drafting a proposal and implementation plan for a new product, after that I am haggling with vendors in Idumota and the day after seeing patients come in for followup, already feeling better due to our work.
What We Built & Results
We have been able to build clinical offerings that are used by over 350 people monthly across all services and branches- clinics, home care visits, dental services, IV wellness services. We have a Turnaround Time on most lab tests of < 3 hours.
We have been able to scale up service complexity, taking on more serious cases within the limits of our professional capability. We have also secured partnerships for referrals for more serious cases and patients while building a repeat patient base through follow-up systems.
Our price point remains roughly 70% cheaper than other hospitals in the area, making quality care accessible without causing financial ruin.
A few challenges
1. Everything requires deliberateness
What astonished me most was that nothing “good” happens by chance. Left unmanaged, everything tends toward entropy. You need a system for EVERYTHING. Yes, you actually need a timetable for equipment sterilization. You need spreadsheets for customer follow-up. You need to schedule supply refills. You need to schedule laundry.
2. Shifting patient behavior
We had to do significant work on customer health-seeking behavior — re-educating people on when to use a clinic versus just going to the pharmacy next door. This required consistent messaging and demonstrating value through results.
3. Building operational discipline from scratch
Creating systems where none existed means documenting everything, training staff repeatedly, and iterating on processes until they worked smoothly without my constant involvement.
A few lessons & insights
Ownership: Like my M.D. frequently reiterates, you need to take ownership of your role. This means anticipating problems, not waiting to be told what to do, and seeing tasks through to completion.
Designing a workflow: Implementing some Six Sigma principles, Going through/handling a new user-flow myself, noting the pain points of the flow, then improving and automating it to work without me.
Culture of possibility: I am very lucky to work under a visionary and in a team who believes everything is possible and asks when, not if you can work on something. A form of vote of confidence, this routinely empowered me to push beyond my comfort zone, even when it was really hard. It also strengthened my work ethic.
Skills & growth
Perhaps the most singular, most important skill I have gained is being able to review any idea or vague concept, break into its component parts and develop from ideation to business reality.
- In this period, I have become familiar with Excel (I can’t claim that I am now good at Excel. Anyone who says that is a liar lol).
- I have also designed multiple Standard Operating Procedures for services, Job Descriptions and KPIs in the health space. I have developed a keener eye for business development, noting high-profit margins and products, areas for service expansion and data-driven decision making.
- I have also been able to sharpen my operations nous — having both high-level insight into what makes healthcare run and the nitty-gritty for hands-on work in the various segments.
- I have gotten first-hand lessons in the different gears and wheels — finance, accounts, admin, inventory and supply chain — needed to keep a large organisation running like a startup.
- I have seen how much effort and deliberateness goes into designing a people-led culture — where people feel empowered to do their work well and can bring their best to the office everyday. P.S Hiring in Nigeria is so hard, wow. Respect to HRs
- Being more patient with workers and customers: Working in a “bridge” role — interfacing between management and staff, and also patient-facing — means that I have had to move “slower” and more patient than my normal temperament is more inclined, lol.
- I also had to learn and optimise for efficiency — getting 10 projects done at 80–90% quality, than 2–3 at 100%.
- Corporate communication: Learning to navigate formal business communication and stakeholder management.
Impact & broader significance
This project proves the thesis that you can integrate affordable primary care in the Nigerian context. People can get quality, affordable care without financial ruin when you combine clinical excellence with operational discipline and community-appropriate pricing. This model demonstrates that private primary care networks can work in Nigeria — serving hundreds of patients monthly while remaining financially sustainable.
The People Who Made It Work
I am by no means perfect, and still make mistakes of commision or oversight some days. I have been lucky to work with people who care about their work and are also willing to extend support, even beyond their JDs. Victor always reminds me that I am working well and sets a good example on how he handles so many tasks, Chidinma teaches me how to handle government and management compliance. Busayo has practically taken me under her wings in navigating corporate transition — also teaching me how to break problems down, Mariam teaches me about customer experience. Michael is a good ranting ear on most days. Kehinde teaches me about being more patient and seeing the person behind the role. The clinic team has also been incredible in executing on the vision day after day.
I believe that one day, we will build Nigeria’s first private primary care network and there is honestly no one better placed to lead this charge than Mobolaji Ajayi.
Dr. Olaoluwa Olorunfemi
Originally published on Medium ↗