Open-heart surgery programme in Nigeria: The good, the bad and the ugly

The development of open-heart surgery (OHS) programme in Nigeria has followed the different economic phases. Starting from the oil boom era in the 70s to 80s when indigenous efforts led to the successful performance of the first set of OHS to the period of depressed economy in the 80s to 90s that witnessed a lull in the programme, the revamping of the programme that started in the mid-90s following intense collaboration with foreign groups is gradually being sustained. The aim of this article was to examine the current efforts at sustaining the development of OHS programme in Nigeria with a view to identifying various challenges and how such can be addressed.