By Bolaji Okunola
Lagos State Governor, Babajide Sanwo-Olu has said all hands were on deck to ensure affordable health care services in private health hospitals in the state.
He stated this at the maiden anniversary of Duchess International Hospital, GRA, Ikeja, Lagos.
The governor, who represented by the Commissioner for Health, Prof. Akin Abayomi, said the state Ministry of Health was at the brink of importing expertise which would be spread across private hospitals in the state with the aim of rendering services at affordable prices to patients.
“The Lagos State government will continue to 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 sub- Saharan Africa. The ministry is working tirelessly to ensure private hospitals are affordable for all in few days to come. We have a strategic initiative to reverse medical tourism and bring back high skilled and experience medical professionals currently in the diaspora, back to Nigeria.”
He lauded Duchess for positioning itself as pace setter in the health sector.
“They’ve gotten what it takes in terms of standard facilities and affordable registration fee and I hope to see more of this in other private sector,” he said.
Chief Executive Officer of the hospital, Dr. Adetokunbo Shitta-Bey, said the hospital was proud to have successfully conducted a wide variety of routine and complex specialist interventions across a range of specialties and sub-specialty clinical services.
“These procedures have been conducted in specialties such as interventional cardiology, cardiothoracic surgery, neurosurgery, paediatrics, obstetrics and gynaecology, orthopaedic surgery, gastroenterology and reconstructive plastic surgery, including a complex twelve-hour breast reconstruction operation following successful surgical treatment for breast cancer, performed within the first few weeks of commencing services.