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HomeNewsAfricaNigerians Spend Over $3bn On Medical Tourism

Nigerians Spend Over $3bn On Medical Tourism

  • Nigeria has 250 ENT specialists —Enabulele
  • Over 8,000 Nigerian-trained doctors in U.S, UK
  •  Mixed reactions trail president’s trip

Following President Muhammadu Buhari’s trip to the United Kingdom for an ear, nose and throat (ENT) treatment, Saturday Telegraph can exclusively report that over $3 billion has expended by Nigerians on medical tourism in the last three years.

A competent source said between 2013 and 2015, political and public office holders (and their accompanying aides), allegedly spent over $3 billion, while government failed to address the brain drain by improving the working conditions and health centres in the country.

The source said: “The President has the right to seek medical attention but if we look at it from the standpoint of leadership, to me, it’s unpatriotic. Apart from being an indictment on the country’s medical system, huge amount of money is spent when such trips are made, and the irony is that it is the tax payers’ sweat.

“Looking at it constructively, over $3 billion is spent by Nigerians embarking on these ‘medical voyages’. This is outrageous and a serious issue that government should look into if it must address the nation’s health challenges.” Saturday Telegraph further gathered that in 2015, over 637 medical doctors emigrated due to poor working conditions and health facilities while 250 ENT specialists (and professors) were practising in the country with a National Ear Centre located in Kaduna State.

It would be recalled that the Senior Special Adviser to President on Media and Publicity, Mr. Femi Adesina, had on June 4 announced that Buhari would be travelling to the UK for medical attention for his ear infection. The trip, he said, would take 10 days before the president would come back while his deputy, Prof. Yemi Osinbajo, would act as president. A source close to the presidency had told a national newspaper that the cost of the trip which includes aviation fuel, accommodation, allowances of aides and medical treatment might likely cost £6 million.

Enabulele’s criticism of the trip…

Commenting on Buhari’s trip, the Vice-President of the Commonwealth Medical Association (CMA), Dr. Osahon Enabulele, said it was a national shame that the President went to the UK for treatment when Nigeria had over 250 ENT specialists, as well as a National Ear Centre.

Specifically, he said Nigerians were spending over $1 billion (£690 million) on medical tourism overseas, a development which he lamented was rather outrageous. He said: “I am very constrained to state that this foreign medical trip flies in the face of the Federal Government’s earlier declaration of its resolve to halt the embarrassing phenomenon of outward medical tourism, which as at the end of the year 2013 had led to a humongous capital flight of about $1billion, particularly from expenses incurred by political and public office holders (and their accompanying aides), whose foreign medical trips (most of which are unnecessary) were financed with tax payers’ resources.”

Nigerians react…

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Reacting to the president’s trip during the week, the Secretary of the Organising Committee of the Nigerian Centenary Charity Ball (NCCB), Dr. Kingsley Esegbue, said Nigerians were spending an estimated N250 billion on medical tourism in a year. Esegbue, who spoke on behalf of the committee, said: “It is estimated that Nigeria spends N250billion annually on foreign medical care. This is not good for our country.” He said the capital flight was unnecessary for a developing country like Nigeria and asked Nigerians to reconsider their preference for foreign hospitals to the detriment of Nigerian health institutions.

Don faults Buhari trip…

A senior lecturer at the department of Political Science, University of Ilorin (UNILORIN), Dr. Lukman Saka, said the money used for the medical trip could have been used to develop the nation’s health infrastructure. Saka said: “This is the government that had been canvassing for the blockage of wastages in governance and now the president is using public funds to finance his foreign medical trip.”

Corroborating Saka’s position, an ear specialist, Mr. Roberts Tamuno, said: “Nigerians will keep spending money on health/medical tourism, until our leaders and politicians have enough confidence in the clinics they call hospitals and start making it mandatory for members of the political class to receive treatments,medical check-ups, and surgeries among others from these facilities.

Politicians have no confidence in these facilities.” Reacting, a medical practitioner, Dr. Israel Oyewole, lamented the enormous funds spent by Nigerians in seeking greener pastures overseas in the name of medical tourism. He said: “Why won’t we? Our doctors don’t carry out any research once they are certified as doctors.

They don’t even know when a drug is out of use because of new findings. “This is when we expected our ‘so called’ government to increase the tariff of flying out for medical check-up so as to encourage our own doctors and foreign investors willing to improve the sector. Instead, they focused on tokunbo cars.”

Another medical practitioner, Mr. Victor Okoroji, who is based in Enugu, said: “All our governors as well as the minister of health should bow their heads in shame. Some few weeks ago, one of the southwest leaders returned from one of their funny health trips. “When he was the governor, he wasn’t able to build a single hospital in his state but yet can afford to buy a jet. Nigerian leaders are very local! I can’t imagine American or British politicians coming to Nigeria to receive treatments.

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