Evidently playing the ostrich, Nigeria’s Minister of State for Health, Osagie Ehanire, says the pursuit of medical tourism is a no-confidence vote on the full gamut of the nation’s health system.
\nSubdued murmurs ran through the hall, knowing glances were shared, while others stared stonily ahead as the implications of his comments on his principal, swept across.
\nEven though he tacitly dodged mentioning top government officials, including President Muhammadu Buhari, who have resorted to travelling abroad for medicals; and frustrated medical personnel who run abroad for greener pastures, not a few in Benin during the University of Benin Teaching Hospital\u2019s 46th founder\u2019s day and launching of an endowment fund for the hospital, voiced their concerns.
\nHealer, heal thyself of the malaise in Abuja, one volunteered
\nEhanire disclosed that Nigeria loses more than $1 billion dollars yearly to medical services beyond her shores.
\nHis words: \u201cAbout a year ago, it was estimated that Nigeria loses about $1 billion every year to medical service sourced abroad. Outside medical tourism is effectively a declaration of no confidence in our health system, which we must endeavor to reverse.
\n\u201cThe long air travel involved for care in unfamiliar cultures not only severely strains the individual patients\u200b, it often improvises their families and hurt Nigeria\u2019s economy. We must restore confidence in our health sector by improving all aspects\u200b of quality of care, cost efficiency and patient experience.
\n\u201cNot all of our hospitals\u2019 problems are due to lack of adequate equipment or expertise. I can attest that Nigerian doctors and nurses are technically competent, in fact, some hospitals patronized by our citizens in certain Asian countries turn out to be not as equipped or well-staffed as Nigerian teaching hospitals”.
\nAs far as former Head of State, Gen. Yakubu Gowon (rtd.) is concerned, the upgrading and funding of Nigeria\u2019s health institutions will make medical tourism unattractive.
\nOn the endowment fund for the University of Benin Teaching Hospital (UBTH), he said, \u201cWhat we are celebrating today is the last, present and the future of this citadel of learning, the University of Benin Teaching Hospital and the possibilities that the future holds for the hospital.
\n\u201cThat is why the endowment fund being launched today becomes so relevant. It is a worth endeavor geared towards upgrading the institution and health services in the state and the country to a level capable of helping reversing the burden of medical tourism in Nigeria,\u201d Gowon said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Evidently playing the ostrich, Nigeria’s Minister of State for Health, Osagie Ehanire, says the pursuit of medical tourism is a no-confidence vote on the full gamut of the nation’s health system. Subdued murmurs ran through the hall, knowing glances were shared, while others stared stonily ahead as the implications of his comments on his principal, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":8624,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-18017","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18017","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=18017"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18017\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=18017"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=18017"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=18017"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}