Dr. Olutoyin Akande-Ajala is a geriatrician, and the founder of JBS Gerontology Centre, Nigeria’s first private geriatric hospital and specialist center for the elderly.
The hospital which was opened in February 2024 was borne out of a need to fill the vacuum in healthcare delivery for the aged in the country.
Born to parents who were professors, her father, Professor Oluwole Akande, a retired professor of obstetrics and gynecology was the first provost of the College of Medicine at Ibadan and the first Chief Medical Director of University College Hospital, Ibadan.
Akande-Ajala attended Maryhill Convent School, Ibadan, Oyo State, for her primary education and then went to the International School Ibadan for her secondary education. She travelled to Canada with her parents and did A-levels at Highland Secondary School in Ontario, Canada. On her return to Nigeria, she was admitted into the College of Medicine, University of Ibadan graduating in 1991. She had her one-year housemanship at UCH, before moving to the United Kingdom for her residency training in geriatric medicine.
In this interview with Punch, she shares her journey into being a geriatrician.
On why she chose geriatric medicine
I never knew I would major in geriatric medicine when I moved to the UK. When I left Nigeria, there was no such thing as geriatric medicine. I only came across it when I got to the UK.
I knew I wanted to be a physician but did not want to be a surgeon or paediatrician. I wasn’t sure which subspecialty in general internal medicine I wanted to pursue. So when I got to the UK, I decided to begin my career in Wales.
That was when I heard about geriatric medicine. I was curious and applied for the job, which I eventually got.
So my first job in the UK was as a senior house officer in geriatric medicine in Wales. When I was leaving the job after six months, my first consultant, Dr John Morris, told me I was a natural-born geriatrician.
That was the first time someone planted the idea in my mind. After that, I moved on to other specialties in general internal medicine before returning to geriatrics.
It took me two years to finally decide that I truly loved geriatric medicine.
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On founding Nigeria’s first private geriatric hospital
During my training in geriatric medicine, I received calls from people I knew whose parents were getting old. They struggled to find people to care for them and manage their illnesses properly.
It was then that the idea of setting up a geriatric healthcare service in Nigeria was planted in my mind.
Read the full interview here