July 24, (THEWILL) – Last week when Vice President Yemi Osinbajo made a huge statement with his decision to go through with a thigh bone surgery in Nigeria, as opposed to traveling out of the country, many commended him and sought to know which hospital gained his confidence enough to get him to have the surgery done here. The hospital is none other than Duchess International Hospital located in GRA, Ikeja, Lagos. For starters, Osinbajo commissioned the building housing the multi-specialist healthcare facility in October 2021. During the commissioning, he did predict that the coming of the hospital will create an attractive proposition to reverse the trend in medical tourism in the country. This perhaps explains why he chose to have his surgery done there, as a sign of good faith and to not just pay lip service to ending medical tourism.
Considered as Lagos’ third largest private hospital, with 72 beds, it took four years to build and it is one of the three healthcare facilities operating under the Reddington group in Lagos. The hospital was partly funded by the Central Bank of Nigeria and the Bank of Industry as part of the overall plan by the Federal Government to make quality health care more accessible and affordable to more Nigerians across socio-economic divides. And it is relatively so with as little as N5,000.
The man who runs the show there is the unassuming Dr Adetokunbo Shitta-Bey, who acts as the Chief Executive Officer. From the popular Shitta-Bey family of Lagos State, Adetokunbo attended some of the most prestigious schools across the globe. From King’s College Lagos to the University of Nigeria, Nsukka to Royal College of General Practitioners, the professional membership body for family doctors in the UK and overseas, to King’s College London, where he bagged a Master of Science (MSc.) and Cranfield School of Management at Cranfield University, UK where he bagged a Master of Business Administration (MBA). Before assuming the position of CEO/CMD, Shitta-Bey was the CEO of BeyHealth Consulting LTD in the United Kingdom for almost 13 years. With an extensive administrative and clinical experience as a National Health Service primary care physician (GP), medical director/clinical governance lead and deanery educational supervisor, Shitta-Bey over the years acquired international experience in private and public sector healthcare leadership as a consultant, board member and programme director/course convenor of a successful Continuing Medical Education (CME/CPD) programme in Nigeria. Shitta-Bey enjoys writing and is the published author of a book entitled, More Than My Scars.
Ivory Ukonu is a versatile journalist with many years of experience, with entertainment and society reporting as her area of core competence.
