2.5m people for free healthcare, beauty tips yearly

2.5m people for free healthcare, beauty tips yearly

A health, beauty and wellness outfit, Invivo, plans to treat over 2.5 million people free each year in its stores across the country.

Invivo Health & Beauty outfit, which recently opened in Abuja, has already provided free medical consultation for some 10,000 patients since it opened earlier in Lagos and Ibadan.

Invivo director, John Onyeoguzoro, saID reaching the target would mean opening about 500 outlets nationwide, all operating model of basic primary health care that offered patient-centred, consultation-driven health services.

“Already, two more outlets are currently in the pipeline and these will run a pharmacy and treatment room with a resident doctor offering free consultation on a daily basis,” Onyeoguzoro told journalists on a tour of their outlet in Abuja.

According to its model, patients can get free consultation with a staff medical doctor who runs rapid tests - or refers out tests beyond Invivo’s capacity-before writing prescriptions for a drug pickup at the pharmacy. Staff nurses and pharmacists also provide patients care, alongside other health professionals from dermatologists who provide wellness and beauty tips and recommendations before shoppers go to the shelves.

“It is the chicken and the egg. One is more important than the other. That’s why we made the consultancy free before buying drugs,” said Onyeoguzoro.

He noted that Invivo, a subsidiary of Smartmark Limited, hoped to “address social problems such as lack of easy access to primary healthcare, the menace of counterfeit and fake dugs, self-medication and lack of early diagnosis of potentially fatal disease conditions.”

The founder, Yakubu Gobir, said, “Health is one of the basic rights of life, but unfortunately a lot of Nigerians don’t have access to it.”

He said the free health check facility in all Invivo stores allowed patients to walk-in; get their vitals checked and a resident doctor or nurse to consult free of charge.

The founder explained that the organization was managed by seasoned professionals who have spent years of their careers in the pharmaceutical sector and understood where gaps exist and  offered solutions.

Dr Funmi Olaseinde, in-house doctor at Invivo’s Abuja outlet, said the store has seen about 3,000 patients since it opened in the city last year.

“Our target is to make people aware of what they are supposed to know about their health and do something about it even from home, before they even get to hospital,” she said.

She added that Invivo was looking to collaborate with the health ministry’s public health department to begin free routine immunisation and to offer other paid vaccines at reduced prices.
Noting the importance of health promotion, Olaseinde hinted that the clinic was into preventive, health promotion services and awareness on tests available for each age group and sex.

“Reproductive, maternal and child services are also available with counseling and information are given on family planning and contraceptive use. Body mass index calculation and weight management counseling are also given with subsequent follow-up of high risk obesity patients for cardiovascular risk assessment for all customers,” she explained.

DAILY TRUST