Business Plan for Jatry Eye Centre in Nigeria

The prevalence of blindness in Nigeria according to the national survey done in 2009 is 1.05%. Preventable blindness is a prevalent problem particularly in southern Nigeria with a population of 63 million. There are about 4 million people in Nigeria with seeing difficulties and approximately 180, 000 become blind annually. 75% of the eye problems are curable, however about 54% of the population lives at or below the poverty line and thus not in a position to afford expensive eye care (Abdul 2009, pp. 20-22).

Description

Jatry Eye Centre is the largest provider of eye care in the country through its network of 3 tertiary, 7 secondary, 2 mini-hospitals (12 in all) and 25 primary outreach/eye care clinics. All its eye care centers are equipped with reliable state of the art eye care facilities and staffed with professional health workers and paramedics. In the past few years of its existence, Jatry eye centre has treated more than 12 million patients in OPD and performed about 1.2 million major and 1.3 minor eye surgeries in Nigeria (Mohindra et al 2008, p. 345).

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Future development trends

• Increased HIV complications together with a normal increase of glaucoma and cataracts in the next 15 years. This will mean more budgets for cataracts-advanced primary screening system might increase cataract patients-more cataract surgery with intraocular lens implant-reduced cataract backlog.
• Advanced screening for:
• Glaucoma
• Cataract
• Telemedicine and Tele-ophthalmology
• Training for cataract surgeon and training for CSO and ophthalmic health workers.
• Prioritization
• Any advances in cataract, childhood blindness, corneal blindness, and glaucoma.
• Partial blindness in southern Nigeria.
• Quality of care

Jatry eye centre is founded on the basis of quality services to people of Nigeria, particularly southern Nigeria.

Shortcoming and limitations:

• Absence of qualified ophthalmic surgeon.
• Cataract backlog-long waiting list of patients.
• Absence of adequate and reliable secondary clinics.
• Absence of community-based service rotation program– to strengthen secondary and primary eye care.
• Eye care staff.
• Committed ophthalmic staff.
• Materials: Ophthalmic micro-surgery equipment, ophthalmic drugs, intraocular lenses, and other disposable eye care materials.
• Maximizing available IT eye program.
• Eye care services

The eye care services in Jatry Eye Centre are grouped into primary and secondary services;

Primary eye care services include:

• Vision screening
• Squints, amblyopic, and refraction screening
• Glaucoma, diabetic, hypertensive retinopathy, and cataract screening
• Planned intraocular pressure check and visual field
• Secondary eye care services include:
• Planned cataract surgery which includes intraocular transfer
• Planned Trauma and glaucoma surgeries
• Planned Amblyopia and Strabismus treatment
• Yag capsulotomy
• Underlying magic

Jatry Eye Centre embraces uniqueness and quality of service. In this way the eye centre is expected to maintain a leading end in the industry.

• The quality- in Jatry Eye Centre quality is achieved through engagement of qualified ophthalmologists, ophthalmic nurses, optometrist and care assistants utilizing state of the art eye technologies that will assist in the delivery of quality eye services. On the other hand, planning will be carried in advance and since the service is only for eye care, there will be more emphasizes, low variability and comparatively increased efficiency.
• Uniqueness-the eye centre plans to offer a suture less cataract surgery. This is purely a unique service. Studies showed that only 25% of the population in Nigeria is able to access eye care services. The rest, either do not have the buying power or the infrastructure does not favor them. Therefore, this service will be of its kind in Nigeria. On the other hand, the cost is within common man reach since it is only ¼ of the cost of the incumbents.
• Competitors

Jatry Eye Centre’s competitors include:

• Privately owned eye clinics-because the geographical site of the eye centre will be in the sub-urban and rural area, there will be no immediate threats, locally. Most of the eye centers in Nigeria are located within the urban areas and are hundreds of miles away. This will give Jatry eye centre an opportunity to capitalize on rural and also sub-urban regions of the country.
• The government owned hospitals-in Nigeria most of the state owned hospitals lack specialized eye care services. This places the eye centre in a better position in competing for the available market.
• Substitutes-some crude traditional procedures such as use of concoctions, couching, herbs and other self- prescribed medicinal eye drops that can only buy time, however cannot provide a permanent solution to eye problem.
• Competitive advantage

The competitive advantage of the eye centre lies in its strengths and barriers to enter the industry. Below are the strengths and barriers to entry of Jatry Eye Centre;

Strengths

• New technique- Jatry eye centre aims at presenting a new approach to eye care services.
• Technology-the eye centre embraces the technology of suture less surgery which is more efficient compared to traditional methods.
• Low fixed cost-fixed cost of operation in rural and sub-urban areas is about 8 times that of urban areas.
• High quality-the centre embarks on accurate diagnosis, fast customer response, and excellent patient satisfaction. The eye centre also offers free follow-up and it is more accessible to customers.
• Competitors-in rural and sub-urban regions there are few competitors.
• Barriers to entry
• Affordable price-due to high variable cost, it is difficult to offer eye services at a lower price. But the eye centre will use the low fixed cost as a stepping stone and offer its services at low price.
• Quality service-the industry does not offer incentives towards promoting high quality among private practitioners.
• Subsidy-government owned hospitals enjoy subsidies on medical equipments and medicine.
• Free screening of diabetes and hypertension.
• Promotion-regular and planned campaigns present a problem in educating the public.
• Growth plan

The growth plan of the centre is a mix of the following:

• Jatry Eye Centre plans to expand and capture different parts of Nigeria.
• The eye centre is actively seeking to enter into contracts with corporate institutions, state, federal and local government-owned hospitals to take care of their eye patients.
• On the other hand, the centre is planning to integrate their services by launching their own lenses manufacturing laboratory which will produce optical and intraocular lenses in commercial quantities.
• International eye services-the eye centre is planning to go international and provide services in neighboring countries like Cameroun, Togo, and Benin.
• Capacity-the centre plans to increase bed capacity so as to accommodate more patients.

Status and Time Line

• Market and sales analysis
• The target market-Jatry Eye Centre targets both rural and sub-urban regions in southern Nigeria, with an estimated market of 4 million people with eye problems. The market is segmented such that school going children (from 4-11) represent 25% and the adults (12 years) represent the rest.
• The financial value-the financial value of the eye centre is 120 million pounds. The centre is planning to capture a modest 6% of the entire market in rural and sub-urban areas. This will offer business revenue of about 6 million pounds within two years (Wiesel and Hubel 2006, pp. 1009-10).

Conclusion

From the above discussion, it is clear that there is a huge gap in the delivery of eye care services in the southern region of Nigeria. This has created a business opportunity in Nigeria and other surrounding countries.  Tapping into this business opportunity will not only provide revenue to the business but will also be of societal good.

Bibliography

1. Abdul, M 2009, Prevalence of Blindness & Visual impairment in Nigeria: National Blindness & Visual Impairment Survey, vol. 50, no. 3, pp. 20-36.
2. Wiesel, T & Hubel, D 2006, Single cell response in striate cortex of kittens deprived of vision in one eye: Neurophysiology Journal, vol. 26, no. 5, pp. 1003-17.
3. Mohindra I, Jacobson SG, Thomas J & Held R 2008, Development of amblyopia in children: medical journal, vol. 99, no. 7, pp.344-6.
4. Sight Savers International, The Nigeria national blindness & visual impairment survey 2005-2007, retrieved from, http://www.sightsavers.org/about_Nigeria%20blindness%20survey.pdf on 7 June, 2010

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