Medical treatment abroad for a relative in Nigeria: India, the UK, and when it makes sense

The scale of it

• The Central Bank's balance-of-payments data show $549 million spent on health-related travel in January to September 2025, up about 18% on the same period of 2024. The Nigerian Medical Association's president put the annual figure at about $2 billion in November 2025; older government estimates ranged from $1 billion to $1.6 billion.
• Cancer, orthopaedics, kidney and heart treatment account for about 60% of the spend. India's own account of Nigerian patients lists cardiac, cancer, orthopaedic and eye treatment, kidney transplants and neurosurgery; IVF and fibroid surgery also travel.
• The government is building against it: the African Medical Centre of Excellence in Abuja (opened 2025, 170 beds rising to 500, with King's College Hospital London), NSIA cancer and diagnostic centres, and a new complex at FMC Abuja inaugurated in May 2026 expressly to reduce medical tourism.

India: prices and the visa

• Indicative package quotes from facilitators and hospitals, in US dollars, 2025 and 2026: a conventional heart bypass at Apollo $6,500 to $10,500 (stay 7 to 10 days); angioplasty with one stent $4,500 to $6,000; total knee replacement from $5,500; six cycles of chemotherapy $6,000 to $14,000; a living-donor kidney transplant $13,000 to $18,000. Return flights from Lagos or Abuja $600 to $1,400; a companion's accommodation $40 to $100 a night.
• The visa route for Nigerians is muddled. India's e-Visa portal lists Nigeria as eligible for an e-Medical visa, but its fee table omits Nigeria and Lagos agents say a regular medical visa is required: about $585 plus a $3 welfare fee, 3 to 7 working days after biometrics, with a hospital invitation letter, medical reports, bank statements and yellow fever and polio certificates. Up to two medical attendant visas go with it. Confirm with the High Commission before booking.

The UK: prices and the visa

• Self-pay prices are published for some procedures and not others. Knee replacement: Nuffield Health's national guide price is £16,914; Spire Bushey from £17,536; a 2024 survey put the national average at about £15,100. Heart bypass at London's private hospitals is priced on request; an aggregator quotes $40,000 to $70,000.
• Cancer: chemotherapy is typically £500 to £2,500 a session privately, a radiotherapy course £3,000 to £6,000, and a robotic prostatectomy about £30,000 (2026 guides). 93% of private cancer patients in the UK are insured, which is why self-pay quotes are scarce.
• The Standard Visitor visa for private medical treatment: £135 for six months or £234 for up to 11 months (with a TB test), extendable in-country at £1,172 per six months. It needs a letter from a UK-registered doctor giving the condition, the estimated cost and length of treatment, and where it will happen, plus proof of the money to pay. Fees from Nigeria in dollars: $189 and $328.
• An NHS bill of £500 or more left unpaid after complications counts against future visa applications, as the page on visiting parents explains.

The risks nobody prices in

• Aftercare. In one Nigerian neurosurgery series, 9 of 23 patients who returned after surgery abroad had complications, over a quarter with infections needing unplanned treatment. The surgeon who operated is on another continent; the doctor who sees the wound is not.
• The flight home. Long-haul travel soon after surgery raises the risk of blood clots. Build the recovery days into the trip, not the flight.
• Records. Discharge letters, scans and prescriptions in a folder, translated into what the Nigerian doctor needs. A single health record for the member, kept in one app the family and the Kinship team can read, is the cheapest part of the whole exercise and the one most often skipped.
• Money. Package quotes exclude complications, extended stays, a second opinion and the companion's costs. Have a written quote, a written inclusion list and a reserve.

When it makes sense

• A defined procedure with a defined outcome (a joint replacement, a bypass, a cataract) where the Nigerian option is unavailable or the waiting risk is high.
• A named surgeon and hospital, a written price, and a Nigerian doctor already lined up to take over aftercare.
• Someone to stay with the patient, and money for the trip that does not come out of the food-and-medicines budget at home.
• It rarely makes sense for a chronic condition that needs care every month. That is the case for treatment near home, paid for by a plan that keeps paying after the flight lands.

Questions people ask

Related

• When a parent visits from Nigeria: healthcare in the UK
• Choosing a hospital in Lagos