While commissioning new Amenity and Labour wards at the Federal Medical Centre, Jalingo, Taraba State recently, Osagie Ehanire, minister of State for Health, said that Nigeria spends about $1billion annually on medical treatment abroad.
Some medical experts say it is over $1.3billion; an amount that can build at least three world class hospitals in the country.
Sadly the huge foreign exchange is spent on treatments in countries with good medical facilities and not necessarily manpower.
Dr. Adeyinka Shoroye, secretary, Board of Trustees, Nigerian-American Medical Foundation, once said in an interview that in 1995, the American Medical Association confirmed about 1,200 Nigerian doctors who were born in the US and by April 2018, the number increased to 4,500.
So, if you build the facilities and offer Nigerian doctors abroad good working conditions, some will return to reduce the number of Nigerians travelling abroad for quality medical treatment.
Already, Rotimi Akeredolu, governor of Ondo State, has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Medicus International, a German outfit, to establish the Sunshine Medical City worth $1.1 billion.
As well, about 100 hectares of land have been secured close to the airport for the project, which will offer facilities such as conference halls, cinema halls, teaching hospital, technical school that can handle all the medical equipment for the hospital; a recuperating centre, among others.
Nigerians await the completion of the mega hospital in 36 months. But the question remains, will Nigerian ‘big men’ patronise the outfit despite its world class facilities and 50 percent of the doctors trained in Germany?
It is obvious that many will still prefer to travel to India, Dubai, Saudi Arabia, UK, US and Germany, even when German authority refers them to the Sunshine Medical City Akure.
For government officials, it is going to be difficult to go for check-up in the country when there is a lot of estacodes to collect for travel abroad for same treatment.
Recently, President Muhammadu Buhari reduced the number and duration of foreign trips for ministers and other categories of government officials in a move described as ‘cost-saving measure’ to achieve fiscal prudence.
But the officials are still travelling though, collecting estacodes and other allowances until the directive is enforced. But the person who will enforce the directive also needs estacodes and that is why medical tourism abroad will still thrive, amid growing number of collaborators in foreign hospitals. This is another business entirely.
However, Nigeria needs more projects like the Sunshine Medical City. There should be laws to enable stolen funds be redirected into projects like this and get the right partnerships to see them to fruition.
The hospitals abroad should be encouraged to establish here, while legislature should make laws that will forbid government officials from travelling for medical treatment abroad if there are such facilities here. Same should apply to education in order to improve the standard.
There is the need for political will to do away with negative lifestyles that have continued to make Nigeria a laughing stock in the comity of nations. If government can close the nation’s borders against influx of illegal products, it can as well insist that every Nigerian, irrespective of status, must seek medical treatment locally. If this is done, within a short time, Nigeria’s healthcare system would be greatly improved.
