Questions to ask when a relative is discharged from hospital in Nigeria
The discharge conversation in a Nigerian hospital is often short, verbal and held with whoever is standing there, and what is not written down that day is lost by the weekend. Eleven questions, asked by phone or by the relative in the room and photographed, turn a discharge into a plan.
By Kinship · Updated 19 September 2026 · 5 min read · Information, not advice.
Why this matters more than it seems
- Stroke patients at UCH Ibadan stayed 13.7 days on average and about 4% of stroke patients at another teaching hospital left against medical advice, most often because money ran out. Discharge is frequently driven by the bill rather than by recovery, which is exactly when a written plan matters most.
- UK guidance describes home recovery after a serious illness as physiotherapy, medicines, help with daily living and a review at about six months. None of that happens in Nigeria unless the family arranges it, and the family cannot arrange what it was not told.
The eleven questions
- What was the diagnosis, in words we can repeat to another doctor? Ask for it written on the discharge summary.
- What medicines, at what dose, for how long, and which of them must never stop? Photograph the prescription and the packs.
- What are the warning signs that mean go back now, and which hospital and number do we go to? Write both down.
- When is the follow-up appointment, with whom, and what should be brought to it?
- What can they do, and what should they not do, for the next two weeks? Stairs, washing, cooking, walking outside.
- Is physiotherapy, wound care or a nurse needed at home, how often, and can the hospital recommend someone registered?
- What did the tests show, and can we have copies of the scans and results? Many hospitals hand over films or a CD on request, and the next hospital will ask.
- Is there anything about diet, salt, sugar or alcohol that has changed?
- Who at the hospital do we call with a question next week, and on what number?
- What is the total bill, itemised, and what is still owed? Ask before the day of discharge; the deposit rarely matches the final figure.
- Is there anything the patient has not been told that the family should know?
Getting the answers when you are abroad
- Ask the relative in the room to put the doctor on speaker, or to record the conversation with permission, and to photograph every page handed over. Send the photographs to one shared place the same day.
- Ask for the discharge summary by name; a Nigerian teaching hospital will have one even when nobody offers it.
- Under a Kinship Plan, the answers go into the member's record in the app, the nurse's first visit after discharge checks the medicines against the prescription and the warning signs against the person, and the Kinkeeper reads the update. The page on what to do when a relative is admitted covers the days before this one.
Questions people ask
Will a Nigerian hospital give us the medical records?
Patients are entitled to their records and most hospitals will provide a discharge summary and copies of results on request, sometimes for a small fee. Ask before discharge; it is slower afterwards.
What if they are discharged before they are ready because of the bill?
It happens. Get the same eleven answers, ask specifically what treatment was cut short and what would complete it, and arrange the home nursing and follow-up that would otherwise have happened on the ward.
After a hospital stay
How a Kinship Plan works for the weeks after discharge, with prices.
After a hospital stayRelated
Sources
- Length of stay after stroke, UCH Ibadan (PAMJ, 2017)
- Stroke admissions at a rural Nigerian tertiary hospital, 2021
- NHS: recovering from a stroke
- Stroke Association: caring for someone after a stroke
Prices in naira are quoted with their date because they move. Nothing on this page recommends a named provider.
This page is information, not advice. Kinship wrote it from the sources listed above and checked it on the date shown. It is not medical, legal, financial or insurance advice, and it does not take account of any one person's circumstances. Decisions about treatment belong with the person and their doctor; decisions about money, insurance or immigration with the person and a qualified adviser. Our platform terms apply.