President of NARD, Dr Uyilawa Okhuaihesuyi, made the call on the urgent need to ban officials from traveling abroad for medical purposes during an interview with journalists in Abuja.
He said doing so will bring the desired improvement in the country’s health sector and also save the lives of millions of poor Nigerians who do not have the means of traveling abroad to attend to their health challenges.
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Dr Okhuaihesuyi said: “If medical tourism is banned in Nigeria, it will encourage the public officials to be able to develop the health system in the country.”
Asked if that would not put many lives at risk considering the poor state of the country’s health system, and the fact that many people who embark on medical tourism do so for serious and chronic diseases such as kidney, cancer and heart diseases, among others, he said: “We have one of the best set of health workers in the world, and that is why most countries tend to scavenge on doctors in Nigeria.
“What the government needs to do is to make the hospital functional, provide equipment such as Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI), CT Scan, radiotherapy machines, and to make their lives comfortable. Nigerians will not need to travel anywhere,” he added.
He said if the N576 billion being spent on medical tourism is deployed in renovating health infrastructure and improving service delivery, the country’s health sector would be better for it. “There is a need for government to make health a priority,” he said.
Nigeria is estimated to lose over $ 1 billion dollars to medical tourism annually. The amount many times exceeded the total amount allocated to the health sector in yearly budgets in the country.
Many Nigerians who travel out of the country for their medical needs often have to go back monthly for check-ups and sometimes for corrective surgery.
However, medical tourism witnessed a decline in 2020 as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic and due to the closure of international borders.
During the period, many Nigerians including public office holders were forced to access care in Nigerian hospitals for some months.
The resident doctors started an indefinite nationwide strike action on Thursday, April 1, because of the failure of the government to meet their demands. Their union had earlier given the government an ultimatum on Sunday that elapsed on Wednesday.
The demands of the association include immediate payment of all salaries owed to all house officers including March salaries (regardless of quota system) before the end of business on March 31. Other demands are: “Immediate payment of all salary arrears including March salaries for our members in all Federal (GIFMIS platform) and State Tertiary Health Institutions across the country especially Anambra State University Teaching Hospital, Awka (ASUTH), Imo State University Teaching Hospital, Orlu (IMSUTH) and University of Medical Sciences Teaching Hospital (UNIMEDTH).”
The resident doctors also want an upward review of the current hazard allowance to 50% of consolidated basic salaries of all health workers and payment of the outstanding COVID-19 inducement allowance especially in state-owned-tertiary Institutions.
The resident doctors equally called for the sack of the Registrar of the Medical and Dental Council of Nigeria (MDCN) for failure to demonstrate competence in the handling of the central placement of house officers.
“This will give room for smooth implementation of the central placement of house officers without further delays,” the association said.
Reviewed by Jude
on
April 02, 2021
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