Lagos and Abuja hold the deepest pools of medical specialists in Nigeria. That is exactly why the published numbers on the country’s specialist capacity matter for families in those cities: the national figures describe the pool those cities draw on, and they are the only figures anyone publishes. This article sets out what the record shows, what it does not show, and what a family can actually verify before planning any treatment — at home or abroad.
This article is about capacity and planning, not clinical advice. Whether a treatment is right for you is a question for the doctors who have actually seen your case.
The published figures, side by side
| Published metric | Figure | Source | What it can and cannot tell you |
|---|---|---|---|
| Nigerian-trained doctors relocating to the UK | 4,691 in the three years to April 2026 | UK General Medical Council data, reported in Nigerian press | Direction and speed of the drain on the specialist pool; not a count of who remains |
| Functional radiotherapy machines nationwide | Fewer than 20 (professional body statement, 2022) | ARCON, via the Guardian | National equipment capacity for cancer care; not a Lagos or Abuja count |
| Radiotherapy centres | 9 centres, 7 functional, majority in the south-west | Peer-reviewed survey (2023) | How unevenly machines sit across the country; not a utilisation figure |
| Centres performing open-heart surgery (paediatric audit) | 6 of 48 centres surveyed (12.5%) | Cardiovascular Journal of Africa (2017) | The only published national audit of its kind; data collected 2010–2014 |
| Paediatric cardiologists | 33 for 87.7 million children | Same audit | A workforce ratio the audit itself calls far below the ideal |
| Household and government health spending abroad | US$549.29m in nine months of 2025 | Balance-of-payments coverage in Nigerian press | That outbound care spending is large and growing; not a flow count by specialty |
Why the biggest cities still plan around capacity
Three published patterns explain the Lagos and Abuja experience without any city-level statistics. Concentration: the audits that exist describe services clustering in the south-west and in a small number of teaching hospitals — Lagos sits inside that cluster, which is precisely why families from other states travel to Lagos, adding their demand to the city’s. Emigration: 4,691 doctors relocating to the UK in three years comes off the top of a pool that was already small relative to population. Documented inadequacy in the audits themselves: the paediatric cardiac audit’s conclusion — services grossly inadequate and poorly distributed — is the professional literature’s own language, not a facilitator’s marketing.
What the record does not contain is just as important for planning: no published Lagos or Abuja specialist headcount, no national waiting-list registry, and no official flow statistics showing how many Nigerians travel to India or anywhere else, by specialty. Facilitator marketing fills those gaps with confident numbers; the honest position is that they are claims, not statistics.
What a family can actually verify
- A file you hold. Referral letters, test results, imaging and the imaging itself (on disc or digital) — kept by you, not only by the hospital. A portable file is what any independent review, anywhere, works from.
- A written plan with dates. At each visit: what is next, who does it, and when. Whatever the answer, it is recorded in your file rather than remembered.
- An independent read of the file. Our remote consultation ($50) and written second opinion ($150) review your existing reports from home — no travel, no visa — and answer whether the advised plan is the recognized approach for your case. Our guide to getting a specialist opinion from Nigeria covers the logistics.
What Medtu Care’s fees are, and what they are not
Our fees: $50 for a remote consultation, $150 for a written independent second opinion, $1,000 for full journey coordination — each credited in full toward the next step, paid by you and never by a hospital. We are a facilitator, not a hospital and not a clinical authority: we do not make clinical decisions, and we do not promise outcomes. Where you are treated is your decision with your doctors.
If the decision includes India, our Nigeria–India corridor guide covers the visa, flights and payment planning in detail, and the fees page states our terms in full.
Sources
- Nigeria loses 4,600 doctors to UK in three years — Report (Punch Healthwise, 21 April 2026). Grounds the emigration figure in the table and the concentration section: 4,691 Nigerian-trained doctors relocated to the UK between 29 May 2023 and April 2026, per UK General Medical Council data. Accessed 5 October 2026.
- Available radiotherapy machines inadequate for cancer treatment management (Guardian Nigeria, September 2022). Grounds the radiotherapy-machine line in the table: the Association of Radiation and Clinical Oncologists of Nigeria (ARCON) describing fewer than 20 functional radiotherapy machines nationwide. Accessed 5 October 2026.
- Radiotherapy services in low resource settings (Akinwande et al. 2023, PMC). Grounds the radiotherapy-centre line in the table: nine radiotherapy centres in Nigeria, of which seven were functional, the majority in the south-west geopolitical zone. Accessed 5 October 2026.
- Audit of availability and distribution of paediatric cardiology services and facilities in Nigeria (Ekure et al. 2017, Cardiovascular Journal of Africa 28(1):54–59). Grounds the open-heart, workforce and distribution lines in the table and the concentration section: 48 centres surveyed, open-heart surgery in six (12.5%), 33 paediatric cardiologists for 87.7 million children, and the audit’s own conclusion that services are grossly inadequate and poorly distributed. Accessed 5 October 2026.
- The PUNCH (Nigeria) — The High Cost of Medical Tourism in Nigeria & Its Impact. Grounds the outbound-spending line in the table: Central Bank of Nigeria data puts FX outflow for health-related travel at $549.29m in the first nine months of 2025, up 17.96% from $465.67m in the same period of 2024. Accessed 5 October 2026.
- Medical Treatment in India from Nigeria: Costs, Visa, Trusted Process — Medtu Care. The corridor logistics referenced in the closing section. Accessed 5 October 2026.
- Medtu Care fees page. Grounds the closing fees section: $50 for a remote consultation, $150 for a written independent second opinion, $1,000 for full journey coordination, each credited in full toward the next step. Accessed 5 October 2026.