Your own health when you split time between the UK and Nigeria

The NHS while you are away

• Free NHS hospital care depends on being ordinarily resident: living in the UK lawfully and on a properly settled basis. Someone who keeps a UK home and returns to it generally remains so; someone who has moved abroad permanently does not, and the NHS says so plainly.
• GP registration is different. The GP contract regulations require a patient who has been absent from the UK for more than three months to be removed from the list, from the date the practice is told. In practice removal depends on notification; re-registering when you are back is straightforward.
• Your regular medicines: NHS prescribing guidance accepts responsibility for supplying ongoing medication for temporary periods abroad of up to three months. For longer trips you get enough to reach your destination and then buy locally. Malaria tablets are private prescriptions.
• The UK Global Health Insurance Card does not apply in Nigeria; it is for the EU and a handful of other countries, and it is not a substitute for insurance anywhere.

Before you go

• Malaria: the UK travel health service rates Nigeria high-risk countrywide, with atovaquone/proguanil, doxycycline or mefloquine as the options. Private prices, September 2026: generic atovaquone/proguanil from £1.55 a tablet (about £46.50 for a three-week trip), doxycycline from 39p a capsule (about £16.50 for two weeks), mefloquine from £2.30 a tablet.
• Yellow fever: a certificate is required for entry, from age 9 months. Nigerian citizens and residents are issued the electronic Yellow Card by Port Health Services.
• Vaccines for most travellers: hepatitis A, tetanus, typhoid (especially if visiting friends and relatives), yellow fever. Hepatitis A, typhoid, tetanus and polio are free at an NHS GP after a risk assessment; yellow fever, hepatitis B, rabies and meningitis ACWY are paid for.
• Insurance: check the single-trip limit on an annual policy before relying on it for a long stay. Long-stay policies exist (one large UK provider goes to 550 days for people under 66) but none publishes a price for Nigeria, so the cost is only available by quote, and every policy carries an exclusion for regions the Foreign Office advises against, which in Nigeria includes the north-east, several northern states and the riverine Delta.

Prescriptions across the border

• Carry medicines in original packaging with the UK prescription or a GP letter, in quantities for personal use. Nigeria's rules allow unregistered medicines for personal use only on documented medical need; for controlled drugs (tramadol, codeine, benzodiazepines) check NAFDAC's position before travelling.
• The Foreign Office says Nigerian pharmacies accept UK prescriptions and a local doctor can issue a new one for a fee. The page on pharmacies and medicines in Nigeria explains how to check the pharmacy and the pack.
• Common medicines are often cheaper in Lagos than a private UK prescription: amlodipine 10mg, 28 tablets, N890 to N3,960 in September 2026.

Falling ill in Nigeria

• Public hospitals charge, and private hospitals charge more, with a deposit on admission. 112 is the emergency number; the city pages on this site list hospital emergency lines for Lagos, Abuja and Port Harcourt.
• The risk for someone who lives in both countries is having two half-records. A Kinship Plan is for anyone in Nigeria who wants it, including you while you are there: health benefits at network hospitals in your own name, a doctor to talk to in the app, and one record that travels with you.

Questions people ask

Related

• Yourself
• Pharmacies and medicines in Nigeria