Duchess Hospital wins 2024 Private Tertiary Healthcare Facility of the Year Award

By Dansu Peter 

L-R: Mr Adebanji Adekanle, Chief Financial Officer; Dr Adeyemi Onabowale, Chairman, Duchess Hospital, Ikeja and Reddington Hospital Group; Dr Adetokunbo Shitta-Bey, Chief Executive Officer; Dr Olufunke Ijimakin, Chief Compliance Officer; Dr Olajide Ojo, Clinical Director at the Media Briefing on Tuesday 9th July, to announce the award of Private Tertiary Healthcare Facility of the Year, 2024, to Duchess International Hospital, Ikeja

Duchess International Hospital, Ikeja GRA, Lagos has been voted the Private Tertiary Healthcare Facility of the Year 2024.  In a keenly contested nationwide voting process with nominees including several prominent and high-profile Nigerian hospitals, Duchess Hospital came first in the private tertiary healthcare facility of the year category. This award comes less than three years following the opening of the state-of-the-art medical facility, an indication of the remarkable achievement and hard work of the staff and management and their dedication to providing access to affordable quality healthcare on behalf of Nigerians.

The Nigeria Healthcare Excellence Awards (NHEA), established in 2014, is an initiative of Global Project and Resources in partnership with the Anadach Group. It was designed to celebrate distinguished personalities and organizations who have contributed immensely to the growth and development of the Nigerian healthcare sector. The Duchess Hospital’s achievement as the Private Tertiary Healthcare Facility of the Year was presented to the hospital at a the Awards’ 10th anniversary celebration on the 21st of June 2024.

Speaking at a media briefing held at the Duchess International Hospital on the 9th of July, the Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Dr Adetokunbo Shitta-Bey said the Duchess Hospital set out in October 2021 with a clearly articulated vision to become “Africa’s favourite hospital” and a mission to “reverse medical tourism by delivering the highest standards of care”.

He highlighted the hospital’s key strategic priorities aimed at delivering “access to affordable world-class healthcare” and noted that Duchess, as a tertiary care hospital offers “the most advanced technology and treatments” and provides a range of specialized diagnostic and treatment interventions that enable it to serve as a hub for inbound medical tourism and a referral centre for complex medical care from primary and secondary care centres and hospitals across the country and abroad. 

Describing the capacity and range of facilities available at the Duchess Hospital, Dr Shitta-Bey explained that the state-of-the-art, multi-specialist 100-bed hospital houses 36 clinical consulting rooms, five operating theatres, 22 critical care beds distributed across adult, paediatric, neonatal and cardiac intensive care, 21 dedicated cardiac beds and eight dialysis beds. He listed some of the hospital’s important milestone achievements in the last three years to include a groundbreaking 12-hour complex breast reconstruction, routinely performed reconstructive Plastic surgery and complex Orthopaedic surgery procedures, including knee and hip replacements and trauma, complex operations on the brain and spine and a thriving and highly successful Open Heart Surgery programme.

Shitta-Bey reiterated the hospital’s commitment to delivering access to affordable world-class healthcare for all Nigerians, regardless of socio-economic status. He stated, despite these achievements, that patient registration at the Duchess Hospital has remained N5000 (five thousand Naira) since the inception of the hospital and will continue to be charged at N5000 for all patients and for the foreseeable future. 

Speaking on behalf of the Board of Directors, Dr Adeyemi Onabowale, Chairman of the Duchess International Hospital and the Reddington Hospital Group remarked: “I am delighted that Duchess has been able to transform the lives of numerous Nigerians, brought joy to homes through providing affordable quality healthcare and reduce the trend of medical tourism abroad in less than three years of its operation and existence”. 

He further stated that “this was achieved in a difficult operating environment marked by high inflation, high cost of electricity, and low purchasing power affecting many Nigerians”. Dr Onabowale commended the staff and management of the Duchess International Hospital for their dedication and charged them to continue to put the selfless service of saving lives above any other consideration.

L-R: Dr Adeyemi Onabowale (Chairman, Duchess Hospital, Ikeja) and Dr Adetokunbo Shitta-Bey (Chief Executive Officer) at the Media Briefing on Tuesday 9th July, to announce the Award of Private Tertiary Healthcare Facility of the Year 2024, to Duchess International Hospital, Ikeja