Duchess International Hospital in Lagos reported 44 open-heart procedures since 2023, a measure of specialist care available in Nigeria as officials seek to improve health services at home. Chief Operating Officer Dr. Olajide Ojo gave the total at the hospital’s fifth-anniversary event on Oct. 22, 2026. He said 20 procedures involved children and 24 involved adults. The breakdown counts procedures by age group, not distinct patients.
PUNCH’s analysis of quarterly data from the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) put foreign health-related spending at $4.74 million from May 2023 through March 2025. It compared that with $9.83 million from May 2015 through February 2017 and reported a 52% decline between the periods. The spending comparison does not count procedures at Duchess or show whether patients chose local treatment instead.
In a March 2024 release, Duchess said its cardiac surgery program began in mid-2023 and completed 31 open-heart procedures that year. The hospital described itself as a 100-bed facility with a dedicated cardiac center. CEO Dr. Adetokunbo Shitta-Bey said in the release that patient survival was “vitally important.” At the anniversary event, management said the hospital had performed 2,053 surgeries since opening in October 2021, with 60% classified as major or complex.
BusinessDay reported that Nigeria’s federal government aims to improve local health care delivery and expand insurance coverage. Minister of State for Health and Social Welfare Dr. Iziaq Adekunle Salako praised Duchess for its ability to provide complex care. BusinessDay also reported that the hospital did not disclose procedure prices at the event, and that wider figures on costs, patient outcomes and insurance coverage were not presented. The reported surgery total documents activity at one facility; it does not show how many people might otherwise have sought care abroad.
