Medical Tourism: Nigeria Becomes New Destination

During the establishment of the Duchess International Hospital, Lagos, Mr. Lai Mohammed, the Minister of Information and Culture, said that it would make a significant reduction in the huge drain caused by medical tourism on the country’s foreign reserves. Mr. Mohammed also explained that the Federal Government’s recent financial interventions and projects in the healthcare sector were to speed up the evolvement of world-class healthcare facilities such as the Duchess International Hospital in Nigeria.

While he addressed journalists after a media tour of the hospital facilities, he stated that no Nigerian, irrespective of their status, had any need to go abroad for medical treatment and added that there was a need for Nigerian doctors abroad to come back home and provide their services in the newly established hospitals in the country. He said that with more world-class healthcare facilities like Duchess Hospital coming on stream, Nigeria will become a destination for medical tourists, instead of having citizens travel yearly and spend over N500 billion for medical tourism.

“We as a country will also conserve our foreign reserves while earning foreign exchange: we will begin to reverse the brain drain in the health sector; create jobs and provide affordable and standard healthcare for our people. It’s a new dawn for the health sector and we are proud of what Duchess and other healthcare facilities are doing in bringing about this new dawn.”

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He further explained that available records show that Nigerians spend between USD1.2 and USD1.6 billion on medical tourism. According to him, “That’s a huge drain on our foreign reserves. Also, to retain doctors, our healthcare facilities must be equipped to the world standard level and doctors and other healthcare workers must be adequately remunerated. Of course, facilities like Duchess International are veritable tools for job creation, in addition to attracting medical tourists from across the world.”

“I am sure the questions on the lips of many here would be how affordable this hospital is, especially for ordinary Nigerians. Fittingly, the management of Duchess Hospital has answered that question by launching the ‘World Class Affordable Healthcare Programme. With what we have seen here today and the Programme that has just been launched Nigerians can now get access to affordable and world-class treatment in whatever is ailing them in many areas, including emergency medicine, women’s health, paediatric care, cardiovascular medicine, kidney dialysis, dental treatment, eye care, etc.

During the launch of the hospital’s new programme – “World Class Affordable Healthcare Programme”, Dr. Adetokunbo Shitta-Bey, the Chief Executive Officer, Duchess International Hospital, announced that with only N5,000, a patient can be registered into the hospital while it would take another N5,000 to see any consultant in the hospital. He stated that the mission of the hospital was to reverse medical tourism by delivering the highest standards of care, using the most advanced technology and treatments to give patients the fastest, most convenient access to the best medical expertise available anywhere in the world.

Dr. Shitta-Bey said that the Hospital was a purpose-built, state-of-the-art, 100-bed hospital, driving to reverse medical tourism, reduce the cost of access to essential hospital services, as well as provide access to quality world-class healthcare.