 Good to see you Ademaya. I am the CEO of the popular clinic in the Republic of God. I am not the CEO. My brother is? My brother? Yes, Dr. Elikem Tamaklu. What do you have to do with the Oakland? Because they led me to your house. Well, we are both shareholders. We are both the children of the founder. So Dr. Tamaklu is not even the owner? Neither. Well, it's complicated because we are actually now owners since our father is not alive. And so his ownership has been passed down to us. So your father started this? Yes. Which year? In 1970. Can you tell me more about your father? I really want to hear that. We can definitely do that. Do you want to sit down? Definitely. Let's do that. Thank you. I told you at the CEO of your whole clinic but since you are telling me that you are not the CEO your brother is the CEO right now. Yes. But like I said, I'm not interested in you and your brother. I just want to know more about the founder of the famous Yahoo Clinic. Okay. Well, I mean, history goes way back. I mean, how far do you want me to go? As far as she can. As far as I can. Okay. So basically he was born in Togo and he was in school, primary school. When he developed an infection in his right leg. You know, they took him to different places, Heba List and everything, but there was no cure until one day a French surgeon came and they actually had to put him down on the table. They had to give him a strong drink to operate on his leg. And he was finally okay. And that is actually the moment in time he decided he wanted to be a doctor. So he then moved to Ghana and continued his education. Then he went for university, University of Dublin, Ireland. And during his time there, there was one holiday break that he went to the UK. And there he found a book. It was the book of the Mayo Brothers of Mayo Clinic, Minnesota, USA. And you know, they have a concept of group medical practice. And so he read this book and he was inspired. He's like, you know, Ghana needs something like this. Where different doctors of various specialties come together under one roof, you know, to discover what really is the problem with somebody, you know. So he decided at that point that he wanted to set up a clinic in Ghana. And that is really how Nyahu Clinic was born. So before he actually started the clinic, there was a whole 10 years before that he was in direct service to the nation. In fact, when he came from his studies in Dublin and then a little bit of work experience in the UK, immediately he was seconded to the Ghana Armed Forces to take up his medical practice at 37 Military Hospital. And in that same year, he was actually dispatched to the Congo because there was kind of a conflict going on there at the time. And so he was actually asked to join the surgical team in the peacekeeping mission. So he was there about two years and then he came back. Upon his arrival, he was again seconded to the British Army to take up postgraduate studies in surgery. Again, he was in the UK for two to three years and then he was recalled because at this time this is in the early 60s. Ghana had gained independence and was now trying to really take a foothold of affairs. So the government realized they wanted more representation of Ghanians within its establishment. So he was immediately recalled to become commandant of 37. So that's why if you go to 37 right now you'll see the Tamaklo ward and it was actually named after him as commandant for another five years. So all those ten years was with 37 before Nyahu was actually founded in 1970. You said in the year 2001 that is when your daddy passed away. Where the one who took over from the year 2001? No, not me at all. My brother and I were still teenagers at the time. So it was my mom who took over. Your mom took over? Will I be able to speak to your mom? She may be able to give you some time. Mommy, you know why I wanted to speak to you? Nope. I believe that the recent success of Nyahu Clinic you need to get all the credit. That's why I was like you know what, enough of the talking with your children I want to speak to you directly. Mommy, what really happened like when you took over without any medical background in the year 2001 what was going through your mind at that time? Well, let's say that the late doctor was sort of because he had a heart condition he had had a bypass some years back and so he was sort of preparing he knew that anytime he'd never know how long he was going to last but then he sort of prepared the minds of the staff he did not intentionally coach me I'd say but just due to the length of time I had gotten married working in the center you know I had worked in the different departments and so I guess he was quite comfortable that I could handle things you're working in the department as the various departments as what, because you're not a doctor you don't have any medical background? No, no, no, there is the support services you know the administration the purchases of drugs and what not the housekeeping and all the other stuff I was had worked in all those areas the medical area was not my thing of course and so while he was responsible for the medical services department when I took over I had to employ a medical director in fact it was in his will he actually stated that in the event of his passing there had to be a medical director in place so when I took over I immediately with the board were able to employ a medical director so the two of us were working together and now your son has taken over I spoke to him and he was telling me that now he's a medical doctor but the time that he passed away he was in high school both of them were in high school how did you come about I need to let my son study medicine yes so that's the thing amazingly things just worked out I never pushed any of my kids to do medicine but the thing was that they just chose my daughter chose management and my son chose medical school so it sort of just fitted and worked out I you know it was none of our doing I don't remember my late husband saying you've got to do medicine they just felt that sense of responsibility to do certain subjects or go that professional route now you've seen the success of your whole clinic you know I live in Topra really I keep on hearing your whole clinic that's why I had to come in so how proud are you to see the success of your whole clinic since it took over while I was working I didn't look back I didn't think about the center while I was working but after when I retired I realized that you know by God's grace we have been able to sustain the center into a relevant medical service delivery and so I with my son taking over and the reputation now I look back and I think we have come a long way and 50 years we have come a long way and we are still relevant in the medical system Dr. Temaklo the currency of your clinic I spoke to your mom and she's so proud of you you did an amazing job but first of all I just want to know why you decided to take over in the year 2015 well thank you for that it's a pleasure to be here I didn't want to take over my story started for me running away I wanted to not have anything to do with my father's name because everyone thought I'm Dr. So's son you kind of want to make your own name so I studied medicine in the UK I became a doctor I came to work with doctors without borders working in rural areas or war-torn areas but then I went to the DRC and I realized that actually when you're dependent on charity there's only so much you can do the people in that community need to be able to have businesses, sustainable jobs and at the end of the day as Africans we are responsible for our destiny so I realized that my parents had built a foundation and I realized that there's a way of growing this so that it can actually have a benefit so I came to Ghana on holiday and then started thinking about what it would be like to move back and then I ended up coming back in 2015 you went to UK for school or yes I went to medical school in the UK and then when I graduated I became a foundation a house officer in the UK I wasn't planning to I was going to do emergency medicine I wanted to save the world I was more interested in going to places that I thought needed me but then at the end of the day your own country, your own place I actually realized that we haven't done quality medicine yet even for everything that we've achieved in Yahoo it's still not the level of care that people deserve and I actually wanted to come back so that it doesn't matter whether you are in Ghana or whether in the States you actually have the same chances of survival because of the healthcare system I just want to know what makes Yahoo Clinics so unique from what are Clinics in Ghana what makes it special probably is that we started with strong foundations the founders started with a team and it became the first it was the first group medical practice in the private sector and he didn't do it by himself he did it with a team I've looked at the last 5 decades actually teamwork is what makes it special and actually we have over 60 specialists who cut across all the main specialties who are working in Ghana they're normally heads of departments in different places but in addition to that we also have about 30 doctors as well who are permanent doctors we have over 300 full-time employees and so how to bring all of those people working together that teamwork is really something that we are passionate about and also I would say I mean really keeping that patient at the center I can tell you that we are not perfect but there is a we can do it we just need to keep on improving so we like to do the hard things like right now we are the only private institution during COVID testing and treatment and it's not because of anything apart from the fact that we saw what was needed and we were like we are in the community we need to actually address the needs of the community we kind of run away from it we need to face it so I think that's what makes it special the main reason why I came here today is because of the healthcare system in Africa in general so now we're in Ghana let's talk about Ghana I just want to know what are the kind of challenges that the healthcare system is facing in here you know the healthcare system in Ghana is great for many things because you know a lot of Ghanaian doctors were trained here and then went on and have done amazing things around the world so it's not anything to do with how smart people are but I think that the system is fragmented fragmented in that you have silos you have public sector, you have private sector you have different hospitals which are not speaking to each other so when you're a patient you move from one place to the next if the information every time you have to keep on giving the same information it is a challenge so we have many issues which have come from this fragmentation and you know going to teamwork I would love to see where private sector have the ability to do things faster and more innovative because they don't have the same bureaucracy they can move quicker but then public sector have a lot of things as well so my question is how do we work truly together so we actually can do things for ourselves we don't need to go elsewhere and get someone else to do it but we can figure it out I just want to create a little bit of controversy I don't know if you're going to help me answer this because I'm a man of controversy I just want to know yeah when it comes to Africa even our own ministers presidents I mean head of states don't trust our medical system they have to leave the country go abroad and think they're going to get the best medical system do you think that there should be a reverse maybe we need to start doing stuff they should stop going out there you don't think something needs to be done to prevent these things from happening I mean it's so key trust trust is so easy to break but so difficult to build and one thing is that we all have had lots of issues with our healthcare system and it has failed a lot of people I won't lie but actually if we stay there and say that just because of the past things don't change then we're lying to ourselves and we need to actually the question is how much are we invested in being a solution to the problem at the end of the day someone has got to fix it and so we in Ghana people will come to us and they have challenges and what we are committed to doing is figuring out how do we meet it so right now for example we just launched our new natal ICU it's a partnership with GE but we have the state of the art equipment we have the expertise which is the critical care nurses we have pediatricians what we're trying to do is build international partnerships whereby a new natologist someone who is a specialist in cardiology in very very small babies I mean how do we connect that person to someone in Ghana so that you don't need to travel outside but you can get the best of both worlds so digital is key for us and so going to the issue of trust trust is not going to change now it's going to take time but it starts with everyone actually saying we're going to stay and become a part of the solution instead of actually leaving for someone else I'm just going to continue again to be a part of the solution you were living in the UK as a medical doctor you came back here definitely you left a lot of African medical doctors in here if you should advise your fellow brothers and sisters even especially Nigerian doctors in America they're a lot if you should advise doctors like that what would that message be if I was to advise it's tough because I can't everyone has their own actually one thing I wish I was told I wish I was told that you know what if I don't come sooner I can't be part of making the system that I want to create when you work in the UK you are within a system you are clogged within a wheel and it takes time for you to build your name you do lots of audits you do lots of papers you do lots of research you have so much need that actually if you are young, recently qualified this is the time to come back because it's not going to be easy but actually if you can use the same methodology and build something well that is something no one can take away from you because you helped build it and so we have people like Prof Rampong Bhatting who opened the Cardiothoracic Centre in Kolibu he came back and he actually committed how do we create many stories like that so by encouragement I wish someone had said to me go get the knowledge get the skills come back and build and I think that would have helped me to be a bit more intentional when I went it's not easy I won't lie but it's possible everyone is talking about Yahoo Clinic it's my first time in here and I want to know what really goes on in here who are the patients that you guys expect to come in here and what should people expect it's a great question our patients actually come from all walks of life we probably see a lot of people who need specialist care and so we have actually done a lot of work to make sure that we can meet their needs so most of our clinics will be a combination of specialists different from child medicine to neurology to cardiology so that covers a lot of the need but we also have a lot of young people who are starting off in life so they're just getting their first pregnancies they're working and they have infection so we see those people who are working and so a lot of companies work with us we work with a lot of insurance companies and then you also have the babies who are born here we've got some amazing staff who have a mother and child unit we have a new and unique ICU so when babies are born preterm we're able to actually cater for them and make sure that they are safe and then the last thing is obviously end of life we have a lot of people who unfortunately have either old age or chronic disease and there's nothing that can be done what we've started to do is a palliative trying to make sure that there's dignity in that time of life as well so we cover the whole spectrum but I think our core competence is to try and be that one stop shop and then hopefully if we can't do it we try and connect you to places that do so people will come here and then we hopefully saw them to where is the best place look I want to know do you believe that Africa is the future ah yeah of course actually Africa is the future every statistic around demonstrates that we have the youngest population but I think that what makes Africa the future is actually that we are people who are like giants emerging from sleep and I think it's whereby if you think of what we can achieve we've gone through so much our history is rich but actually when we changed our identity from being ones who were colonized who were lower than to ones who can actually have an impact I think that is when Africa will arise but it will need a lot of work I think that the discipline it's not just a dream and I think that people like you who are working diligently at your craft it will need a combination of people waking up and then people saying you know what there's work to do let's be disciplined and do it and I think that together Africa will definitely be the future thank you doc I'm not going to let it go but just let me know your father built this 50 years ago and since it came into how do you call it since it took over have you done anything I mean are you just this one we have another branch or anything that you've done what about your father have I just come and squandered no not at all actually I see it as a privilege and it's an honor because obviously my father built a foundation and that's the foundation which we're building on so we started off at one site at airport and now we actually have a site at the cross central which is the octagon branch we just finish a deal with the IFC which is to open a branch in Tema then another in Takaradi so we're definitely on a growth journey and then let me not forget digital so when I came in 2015 the entire organization moved to a digital platform and we're doing that even more so so we're playing around with artificial intelligence we are working with a number of entities around the world trying to look at how do we do this how do we understand the new age of technology in healthcare so that's exciting for us and I'm very proud of our team very proud of our people so it's not been me alone it's been a team and I think it's we're definitely proud thank you so much for talking to me darling thanks a lot