Lagos pledges right environment, infrastructural support for businesses     

Lagos State government has promised to continually provide the right policy environment and infrastructural support for businesses and healthcare facilities to ensure the state becomes a major destination and hub for healthcare delivery across the sub-Saharan Africa.

Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu, who made the promise during the first anniversary of Duchess International Hospital, Ikeja, Lagos, said that the state has a strategic initiative to reverse medical tourism and bring back highly skilled and experienced medical professionals in the diaspora back to Nigeria.

The governor, who was represented by the Commissioner for Health, Prof. Akin Abayomi, commended the management and staff of the hospital for their remarkable achievements in the last one-year and for the hospital’s immense contribution to delivering affordable quality healthcare to Lagosians.

The Chief Executive Officer of the hospital, Dr. Adetokunbo Shitta-Bey, reiterated the hospital’s commitment to impacting the lives of Nigerians through access to affordable world-class healthcare.

Shitta-Bey said that the hospital’s priorities include: building trust in the healthcare system, providing high-quality, affordable services to Nigerians and reversing the trend of medical tourism abroad.

He reaffirmed the affordability of the hospital’s services saying, “to register as a patient at the Duchess
International Hospital is N5, 000, and to have a consultation with a specialist family physician is also N5, 000.”

Reflecting on the landmark achievements of the past year, the CEO remarked that the hospital is proud to have successfully conducted a wide variety of routine and complex specialist interventions across a range of specialties and sub-specialty clinical services.

According to him, Duchess Hospital is affordable to all Nigerians and a “one-stop-shop” for primary, secondary and tertiary care services.

He added that the hospital is positioned to save Nigerians millions of naira in medical tourism in treatment of health conditions, which would otherwise have required medical intervention abroad.

This assertion was supported by patients’ testimonials delivered at the occasion, including one from Otunba Alaba Shonibare, who successfully underwent knee replacement surgery at the hospital a few months ago.

He spoke passionately about the quality of care he received while on admission at the hospital and the reasons his knee replacement surgery was performed at the Duchess Hospital in particular.