The Federal Government says it is adopting a three-point strategic approach to stop medical tourism in the country.
The government
listed the marshalled plans as the National Health Agenda (NHA),
National Health Gazette (NHG) and the National Health Act.
Prof. Isaac
Adewole, the Minister of Health, disclosed this on Thursday in Abuja
while fielding questions from the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on the
effect of medical tourism on the country's economy.
Medical tourism is a
form of health tourism that has to do with travelling of people to
another country for the purpose of obtaining medical treatment in that
country.
Traditionally,
people would travel from less-developed countries to major medical
centres in developed countries for medical treatment that was
unavailable in their own communities.
Adewole explained
that effective implementation of the NHA, HG and the National Health Act
would boost the country's health sector.
The minister said
these instruments had outlined and fashioned the new focus in the
ministry and government resolve to stop medical tourism.
He said the
ministry would now focus on maximising optimal use of available
resources, the provision of specialised care for Nigerians and changing
the direction and destination of medical tourism.
"I believe by the
end of our first year, we should be able to reduce medical tourism such
that in five years' time, less than 20 per cent of Nigerians will go
abroad for treatment.
"We will make our teaching hospitals work and do Public Private Partnerships (PPP).
"The PPP will focus on derivable benefits of promoting inter and intra professional harmony.
"We (FG) will give Primary Health Care preference as a strategic platform for achieving Universal Health Coverage," he said.
According to him,
if the government put its monies in the primary healthcare system, 60 to
70 per cent of the health needs of Nigerians will be taken care of.
He noted that Nigeria cannot achieve Universal Health Coverage without ability to proffer accurate diagnosis.
"Strong laboratory support is quiet crucial, our capacity will go beyond making diagnosis with respect to diseases.
"We will equip the
hospitals and other public health facilities as well as re-orient the
medical and health personnel to adopt positive work attitude to ensure
quality and efficient healthcare delivery to our people.
"Besides, we will
boost the capacity of our health workers to enable them render accurate
diagnosis of diseases and sustain the training and retraining of staff.
"We have the
mandate to provide leadership in the health sector, when we fully unveil
these instruments, it will be obvious to Nigerians that this
administration cares," said the minister.
Adewole assured
that the administration of President Muhammadu Buhari would soon roll
out the Universal Health Coverage, but declined to disclose the date.
According to him,
when the Universal Health Coverage is rolled out many things that scare
Nigerians in public health would fizzle out.
"We (government)
will have primary health care for all the electoral wards in the country
and part of the human resources component of primary health care we are
building is to have village and community health workers.
"The village and
community health workers would visit homes and liaise with head of
households and mount massive public education.
"What we need to stay healthy is the massive health education," the minister explained.
Meanwhile, the
Medical Laboratory Science Council of Nigeria says availability of
quality medical laboratory services will curb medical tourism in the
country.
The Registrar of
the council, Prof. Anthony Emeribe, told NAN in Abuja that quality test
result was one of the surest ways to curtail the menace of medical
tourism.
Emeribe noted that many Nigerians paid huge sums of money in order to access quality healthcare.
He described
laboratory test result as indexes required for proper medical diagnosis,
adding that failure to produce quality result would amount to exercise
in futility.
While saying that
the medical personnel in Nigeria were efficient, the registrar however
observed that they could not perform magic when the empirical data that
enabled them make proper diagnosis was faulty.
"We have good
doctors in the country but they cannot perform magic if the empirical
data that enables them to make proper diagnosis is faulty.
"Indexes required
for proper decisions for medical diagnosis is dependent on laboratory
test results. So when you have shabby labs in teaching hospitals,
federal medical centres and elsewhere what do you expect?
"You find
situations where you go to five teaching hospitals or medical centres
and you get five different results, how will the treatment be
successful," he said.
The registrar said
that in order to ensure quality healthcare services, all health
facilities in the country, both medical centres and federal teaching
hospitals, must key into quality management system.
According to him,
this can be achieved by getting your policies, processes and procedures
right as well as getting the right calibre of people and ensuring all
instruments are well calibrated.
Dr Ben Anyene,
Chairman Board of Trustees, Health Reform Foundation (HERFON), however
said medical tourism is being used as a means employed by government
agents to utilise public funds to treat themselves abroad.
He described the
process as waste of resources, adding that the only way to curtail the
menace was when the nation's health system and facilities are
functional.
"Medical tourism is simply government taking our own money to pay for people to treat themselves abroad.
"There is nothing
wrong for people to travel abroad to treat themselves, but if we can get
our health facilities and system to work we should be able to treat
ourselves and cut down external medical attention.
"The one most of us
are against is using our own money to pay for people in service,
whether public or civil servants to go and treat themselves up to the
laughable things like malaria.
"This is all waste of resources, let us fix the system, if we do that things will work in this country then nobody will travel.
"Why should we go
to Dubai or India to have treatment? Why can't we do it in Nigeria? We
have Nigerians that can render these services," he said.
Similarly, some
medical experts on Thursday called for urgent improvement of medical
centres in the country to curb medical tourism.
They made the appeal in separate interviews with NAN in Abuja.
Dr Patrick Dakum,
the Chief Executive Officer, Institute of Human Virology of Nigeria
(IHVN), said that only few people travel outside the country for medical
treatment, others were referred by some medical experts.
He said that there
were certain diagnostics and treatments that are not available in the
country that makes people want to travel out for better medical
attention.
"Some people just want the very best for their health and they feel they can get that outside the country.
"For instance,
someone who urgently needs a kidney transplant, knowing that we have
less than two centres that can handle kidney transplant in the country.
"Also knowing that a
lot of people will be on queue for chemotherapy, a good medical expert
will advise such patient to seek help abroad to save the patient's
life," he said.
The expert said
that medical tourism can only be curbed when the healthcare
infrastructure, including infrastructure, equipment and personnel, were
well developed.
On his part, Dr
Rilwanu Mohammed, the Executive Secretary, FCT Primary Health Care
Board, said that more than 210 primary healthcare centres exist in
Abuja.
However, Mohammed expressed regrets that only 30 per cent of the facilities are working.
He said that this
was the major reason why people prefer to go to private clinics and
travel outside the country to seek proper medical attention.
The executive secretary also noted that most times treatment was cheaper outside the country than in Nigeria.
Mohammed also noted that travelling abroad for treatment also affects the economy negatively.
He further said
that negative attitude was another major cause why people travel outside
the country for treatment, noting that they prefer to go abroad where
they will be pampered and treated with respect and care.
He also said that most people travel out for personal gains, like acquiring citizenship for their children. (NAN)
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