The Vice President, Prof. Yemi Osinbajo, has spoken publicly for the first time about his experience as an in-patient at the Duchess International Hospital in Ikeja, Lagos State.
Osinbajo was admitted in July for surgery to repair a fracture on his right leg.
In a goodwill message to celebrate the hospital’s first anniversary, the Vice President recalled his generous praise of the hospital’s facilities when he, on October 22, 2021, led other dignitaries to open it, saying ‘by both medical and aesthetic standards, the Duchess Hospital is comparable to the best hospitals anywhere in the world’.
He added, somewhat jokingly, ‘I never knew I would be admitted as a patient a few months later to test the accuracy of my rather generous praise’.
Osinbajo went on to state that not only did he undergo orthopedic surgery in one of the hospital’s ‘state-of-the-art theatres’, he spent a whole week on admission post-surgery in what he described as ‘perhaps one of the most comfortable hospital accommodations anywhere in the world’.
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He added: “The Duchess International Hospital has proven to be world-class, both in the quality of its medical personnel and its management, and it is living up to its mission to reverse medical tourism by delivering the highest standards of care using the most advanced technology and treatments to give the fastest, most convenient access to the best medical expertise available anywhere in the world.”
Corroborating the Vice President, Otunba Alaba Shonibare, Chairman of Alaba Shonibare & Co, a real estate firm in Lagos, who also underwent knee replacement surgery at the hospital in March this year, said the quality of care he received while on admission ‘reminds me of the Cromwell Hospital in London’.
Speaking further, Shonibare explained his reasons for having the knee replacement surgery at the Duchess Hospital, despite numerous attempts by friends and family members to persuade him to have the procedure done in the United Kingdom. “Not only did I do the surgery with one-quarter of the amount it would have cost me in the UK, but I also had the best care from the Duchess Hospital with all my family and friends around me,” he explained.
Chief Executive Officer of the hospital, Dr. Adetokunbo Shitta-Bey, who recalled some of the landmark treatments and surgical procedures performed at the hospital in the past year, said the hospital is proud to have successfully conducted a wide variety of routine and complex specialist interventions across major sub-specialties and disciplines, such as orthopaedics, cardiology and cardiothoracic surgery, neurosurgery, paediatrics, obstetrics and gynaecology, urology and prostate surgery, just to mention a few.