In a healthcare landscape often dominated by high costs and late-stage treatment, bridging the gap between clinical diagnostics and proactive public health has never been more critical. Peninsula Medicare Limited, a multi-specialty diagnostic and medical facility, is partnering with media and lifestyle brand Shakara Square to promote preventive healthcare through a community fitness walk and medical outreach. In this interview, Managing Director and CEO of Peninsula Medicare Limited, Dr. Ikenna Ubadigha, reflects on his return from the UK after two decades, the operational realities of running a modern diagnostic centre in Nigeria, and why aligning with Shakara Square marks a key step forward in empowering local communities with preventive care and lifesaving skills.
What does Peninsula Medicare Limited stand for and its objectives ?
Peninsula Medicare Limited is a private diagnostic and healthcare facility located in Festac Town, Lagos, Nigeria. It functions as a comprehensive diagnostic centre and specialized healthcare clinic. We operate under the slogan ‘Patient-Focused Care… Every Step of the Way.’ Based on its clinical mission and operational practices, its core objectives include: Providing Crucial Diagnostic Information; Promoting Early Detection & Preventive Health; Delivering Specialized & Compassionate Care; and Enhancing Healthcare Accessibility. What we don’t do is we don’t admit the ordinary patients; so we service the hospitals. A patient can walk in also, get their services and go home. So it’s not for people to come in and stay over. The only people who can stay over are just those in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU), the high dependency unit.
How long have you been here for?
Exactly three years, last week. Peninsular Medicare was just three years, exactly last week. And then I’m glad that we’ve grown in leaps and bounds, from servicing about 20-30 patients a day, we’ve gone to hundreds of patients in a day. So I’m grateful to God for that progress.
Looking back from when you started till now, how would you describe the journey?
It’s just about a year now, I actually relocated back from the UK. I lived in the UK for over 20 years. And when I was going to come back, most of my friends thought I was going crazy. They said: ‘Why are you leaving the UK to come back to Nigeria with this hectic atmosphere and everything?’ But it’s like when you have a calling. And I found out here in Nigeria, what we do is curative medicine, which is a very costly, expensive and emotionally draining kind of treatment. But the idea here is to teach and preach preventive medicine. That’s what we do more or less. So the idea is, come here, provide that world class treatment or service, make patients teel good and glad to come back to. Most of my patients come back because they are treated like patients, not like anybody. That’s why we have this focus here, patient focused care. So as a patient, we take you as a human being that needs our help. We are here because of the patient. So we give them the utmost care they need in whatever procedure they are doing.
Considering the cost of healthcare right now in Nigeria, do you still think that people depend more on traditional medicine rather proper healthcare?
The cost of healthcare in Nigeria is exorbitant compared to other countries. I can tell you that most of the patients who should have come to the hospital may not be able to afford it, or will not be able to afford it. And would rather choose any other half-baked medical practices like going to the traditional medicine healers just because they cannot afford this. I think the government should come in here and actually do a lot to help. Government needs to subsidise the cost a lot because, if I should take an example here, I spend about N180,000 to N200,000 on diesel alone each day. Who bears the cost? It’s not me. It goes back to the patient. Because I’ve got to provide the services. Cost of diesel is astronomical now. So this is just one factor of the whole expenses being run here. And you talk about the overhead costs of running this property here, and the staff; its a lot. And our prices tend to just barely add a little bit on top of it, compared to other places that charge high.
I’m sure most of the facilities and machine are outsourced; not from Nigeria. Considering the naira volatility, how is this affecting you? How are you able to conveniently incur these costs on your patients in a way they can still afford it ?
We do a lot more here. In this one facility and the overhead cost is shared by all the procedures. That helps to bring down the costs. You can see we have lots of procedures to be done here. So those procedures share the cost of running this business. And that helps reduce the cost of each individual procedure. Apart from that, it’s a business. We want to make profits but not at the detriment of the patients. So we tend to bring down our prices; just to break even and pay the salaries. And then keeps everybody happy.
Why did you decide to partner with Shakara Square to do fitness walk event?
First and foremost, when my marketing officer Nkechi, brought the idea, what struck me, first of all, is the name ‘Shakara.’ It’s a catchy name. That’s branding. Branding sales.So that name, ‘Shakara,’ caught me. And Ijeoma Ude, the founder of Shakara Square.ng is quite amiable and likeable. That’s on the personal side. But on the corporate side, like I did say, what we do here in Peninsula is preventive health care. And because what they are doing is part of what we preach. Preventive health care. It aligns with our vision for the community. So we’re in it.
What do you intend to achieve after the event or during the event?
First and foremost, we’re going to offer some free medical tests for the participants. We’re going to have an optometrist, a dentist, some medical personnel to take blood pressure and check blood sugar and maybe malaria. That alone is helping the community. We want to give back to the community. This is our primary community. We’re going have our ambulance service going after the runners to help out. Like I said, we’re only three years old here and the more we’re out in the community, the more people get to know us and know what we preach. And on another personal note, there’s a high incidence of cardiac arrest in Nigeria and for most people, when it happens, they don’t know what to do. They just watch somebody sweating on the floor and dying. But the simple knowledge of CPR helps you to keep the person alive. So on that note, I’ll be teaching CPR. I’ll be teaching choking methods. Some emergency procedures you can have to save a life. So that alone gives me personal joy that people are learning those little techniques on how to save a life.
Where do you see this partnership between you and Shakara Square go in the next five years?
I’m not one who plans too far. I take a day, one step at a time. So let’s try this first and if it works out fine and we’re all happy with each other, we’ll carry on. Okay. Right now, we are still knowing each other. However, because their visions at Shakara Square agrees with my vision. I think we can go a long way. Okay. Because if the visions agree, we can go a long way.