Due to Nigeria’s healthcare industry’s quality issues, multi-specialist practices are popping up around Lagos.
Investors are drawn to the growing burden of non-communicable diseases and how the lack of infrastructure and trained labour is forcing Nigerians offshore.
Specialized services like heart, renal, cancer, diabetes, and respiratory surgery are rarer.
The Lagos State government and the IASO Consortium are building a 120-bed medical park on Awolowo Road in Ikoyi, Lagos, for specialized medical and diagnostic services.
It will offer cardiology, orthopaedics, gastroenterology, nephrology, neurology, oncology, urology, and other services.
Victoria Island will also host the $50 million Afreximbank-funded Lagos American Speciality Hospital (LASH).
Odunlami Kola-Daisi will sponsor the 50-bed orthopaedics, oncology, cardiology, nephrology, and rehabilitation facility. Afreximbank said many non-communicable diseases with clinical specializations require intensive medical treatment abroad.
Other projects include Massey Children’s Hospital and Diamed Diagnostic Clinic.
Almost 48% of Lagos developments are for commercial, retail, residential, and healthcare, according to Estate Intels.
Health analysts expect the trend to continue as it indicates a much-anticipated healthcare market improvement.
Debo Odulana, founder of Doctoora, a platform that rents medical equipment, said Nigeria is losing competent health professionals to countries with sophisticated medical care because of the high cost of private practice in cardiology, gynaecology, and neurosurgery.
“A gap exists. Gaps cause medical tourism. It shows we cannot provide therapies here. So, Odulana stated.
After eight years in Abuja, Kelina Hospital debuted in Victoria Island, Lagos, last year, offering “surgeries without scars” or “minimum access surgeries” to Lagos residents.
Last month, it performed 5,000 surgeries without a death. 250 of those surgeries were for Benign Prostatic Hyperplasia, a disorder in men where the prostate gland is enlarged but not malignant and can block urine and damage the kidneys.
High-tech technology, rare in Africa, gives the hospital an edge. As of 2022, Lagos has only 120 and 150 Watt lasers.
Wheathill Hospital is being converted into a three-story Victoria Island apartment. Estate Intel predicts 2023 completion.
Due to poor public systems in most of Africa, Modupe Elebute-Odunsin stated the private sector has become the location to seek medical care.
She highlighted that specialized clinics are bringing worldwide standards of care home to reduce medical tourism and assist patients to receive family support in their weakest moments.
Read also: Employee Health Insurance Critical for Job Retention in Nigeria—Study.
“We have a tumour board where UK and US-based Nigerian specialists discuss every case on Zoom. Elebute-Odunsi told BusinessDay that this is to treat patients using international guidelines.
“Why go abroad?” This is international healthcare in Lagos Island by skilled doctors who have learned and worked overseas for many years and are here to care for patients daily in a healing facility.”
PharmAccess Foundation says private hospitals are expanding and opening new ones to meet the rising demand for excellent treatments, a growing middle class, and massive outbound medical tourism.
Nigerian healthcare specialists in the Diaspora and investors from other countries, mainly the Middle East, are opening hospitals in Nigeria.
Most foreign-owned hospitals obtain financing, engage consultancy, design, and infrastructure development firms, and hire professional employees from their home countries, so they need equipment partners with on-the-ground assistance for quick turn-around maintenance.
Diaspora Nigerians hire specialists from abroad. They require finance.
