Group Medical Director, St. Ives Hospital, Dr. Babatunde Okewale has revealed that reverse foreign Medical Tourism is occurring in the Nigerian In vitro fertilization (IVF) sector with many coming into the country for the procedure.

Dr Okewale said foreigners especially in neighbouring African countries and many Nigerians in the UK, Canada, USA, many European countries and Australia now consider Nigeria a viable destination for their IVF.

He made the revelation during the opening of a new ultra-modern branch of the hospital in Festac, Lagos.

Dr. Okewale said that the success rate of IVF in Nigeria is comparable and even exceeds the rate in many Western countries and that even third-party assisted conception techniques like surrogacy are in very high ascendancy and acceptance in Nigeria.

He remarked that acceptance of IVF in Nigeria has improved tremendously over the last 17 years when the hospital added fertility and IVF to its practice.

The newly opened branch brings the number of the hospital to five.

In her address, the hospital’s Chief Marketing Officer, Kiki Okewale said that the hospital is championing the reversal of medical tourism in Nigeria, due to the outstanding success rate in IVF.

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She said the new state-of-the-art, ultra-modern branch will further push the frontier of the medical profession through the use of advanced technology, in delivering qualitative healthcare services to their patients. St. Ives Hospital adopts a success-oriented approach towards fertility, which has seen it become the go-to hospital for families facing the challenges of conception.

The new hospital is equipped with a 45-bed hospital a children’s play area, a family convenience room, nursing stations, a delivery suite, a pharmacy, a neonatal unit, theatre, X-Ray room, a radio diagnostic, a fertility unit, IVF/ ART unit, andrology laboratory, IVF theatre, and an emergency/ observation room.