The Lagos Government plans to develop a N49 billion Medical Park to attract medical tourists and make the state a medical hub.
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Deputy governor Obafemi Hamzat stated this in Lagos at the launch of the Duchess Royal Medical Check-Up .
Duchess Royal Medical Check-Up is an exclusive three-day comprehensive total body health screening and wellness programme.’
The programme focuses on early detection of disease and providing comprehensive health check assessment.
The Deputy Governor said that the state government would continue to fund the health sector and provide quality health care for it’s citizenry.
“The health sector in our country has over the years struggled to ensure quality in the delivery of health care services.
“The effect of this, apparently, has led to the mistrust of the population in health service delivery in the country.
“This mistrust opened a whole new market for medical tourism, which is also called health tourism and basically refers to international travel for the purpose of receiving medical care,” he said.
Hamzat also stated that the National Association of Resident Doctors revealed that about N576 billion (1.2 billion dollars) was lost to medical tourism yearly in Nigeria.
“every month it was stated that about 9000 medical tourists are from Nigeria out of which 5000 visit India, Mumbai and Delhi.”
The Deputy Governor said in other to make Nigeria a medical tourism destination, both the public and private sector must work together to achieve it.
” The reality is that we must have a relationship with the private sector to know how to manage this things better so that people can get the best of medical services”.
On his own part, the Chairman, Department of Cardiology, Duchess/Tristate Institute, Prof. Kamar Adeleke, advised Nigerians to do regular medical check-ups.
Adeleke added that it was also important for everyone to “Know their Numbers”, including their blood pressure, blood sugar and cholesterol level.
“I can tell you right now in Nigeria the number one cause of death is heart disease, number two is stroke and the third one is Cancer”.
“The World Health Organisation, said that cardiovascular diseases are the leading cause of death estimated 32 per cent of global deaths.”
He, therefore, urged Nigerians to be watchful and conscious of food intake and eat healthy food.
