Nigeria is a country of people who have a strong taste for anything foreign; the people prefer to buy foreign goods, they prefer to send their children abroad for studies, the football authorities prefer foreign coaches over and above indigenous coaches. Indeed Nigerians have a culture of preferring anything foreign, not minding the effect on the nation’s economy.
The country’s preference for anything foreign has been extended to the health sector, where Nigerians prefer to seek medical attention abroad, even for cases that can be conveniently handled here in Nigeria. Reports suggest that no fewer than 5,000 Nigerians, a good number of whom are public servants, seek medical attention abroad, monthly!
Nigeria’s penchant for medical tourism is not without reason. The nation’s healthcare system is grossly underfunded, the structures are dilapidated, equipment are obsolete, healthcare workers are poorly paid and over-worked while the work environment is not conducive. Industrial action is a regular feature in our healthcare system.
All of these lead to brain drain, which further worsens healthcare delivery. According to the UK General Medical Council website, there are at least 8,178 Nigerian medical doctors working in the UK alone! There is no three star government-owned tertiary health facility in the whole country!
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Experts, including the National Association of Resident Doctors (NARD), say about $1.2 billion, which translates to about N576 billion, is lost to medical tourism in Nigeria annually. This amount certainly could have been invested in the health sector.
During his electioneering campaign in 2015, President Muhammadu Buhari had promised to stop medical tourism and save the nation scarce foreign exchange, if elected. He said he would ban elected government officials from foreign medical trips. Surprisingly, rather than ban medical tourism as he promised, he has joined the fray.
Between 2015, when he was elected and date, Buhari has sought medical attention outside the shores of the country, six times, a situation which the Human Rights Writers Association of Nigeria (HURIWA) described as “shameful and regrettable”. The rights group further described it as a “global disgrace”.
Disturbed by the huge cost in terms of foreign exchange as well as the global embarrassment of Mr President patronising doctors outside the country, the House of Representatives is trying to push through a bill which seeks to prescribe a jail term of seven years and, or a fine of N500 million.
The National Health Act (2014) has a clause prohibiting unapproved spending of public funds on foreign medical trips but inexplicably failed to recommend sanction for flouting the law so, this bill sponsored by Sergius Ogun (PDP) representing Edo State, proposes to amend the Health Act 2014 with the singular objective of prescribing punishment for anyone who violates the provisions of the Act.
Section 46 of the Act which the new bill seeks to amend reads: ‘Without prejudice to the right of any Nigerian to seek medical check-up, investigation or treatment anywhere within and outside Nigeria, no public officer of the Government of the Federation or any part thereof shall be sponsored for medical check-up, investigation or treatment abroad at public expense except in exceptional cases on the recommendation and referral by the medical board and which recommendation and referral shall be duly approved by the Minister, or Commissioner of Health of the state as the case may be.’
Ogun, the sponsor of the bill, titled “A Bill for an Act to Amend the National Health Act, 2014; and for Related Matters”, is therefore proposing the insertion of Clause 2(2) which states that “Any public officer of the Government of the Federation or any part thereof who violates the provision of sub-section (1) above shall be guilty of an offence and liable on conviction to a fine of N500,000,000 (five hundred million naira) or to an imprisonment term of seven years or both”.
The bill is intended to discourage medical treatment abroad to the detriment of health institutions in Nigeria. Secondly, the healthcare system in Nigeria is in shambles — infrastructure is lacking just like equipment, there is a dearth of personnel, drugs are almost always not available and remuneration is poor, leading to brain drain. These problems have always been there and nobody is doing anything about it, in spite of the hefty budget health gets annually. It is expected that if the highly-placed public servants and technocrats are no longer allowed to travel abroad for medical attention, they will be compelled to take drastic steps to fix the rot in the healthcare sector in the country.
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If the sector is fixed and made attractive, not only will it stem the tide of doctors travelling abroad in search of better work conditions and improved pay, those who are out may even have a re-think and come back home. The huge sums of money spent travelling abroad for medical treatment, will be ploughed into improving the sector. The bill will also help in conserving our scarce foreign exchange.
Reacting to the import of the bill, a Yenagoa-based journalist, Stanley Imgbi said, “If the bill scales through the House of Representatives, secures concurrence from the Senate and assented to by Mr President, it will be one of the finest legislations to have come out of the National Assembly. It is a well-thought out legislation that will impact positive on the health system as well as the economy and I give kudos to the sponsor of the bill, Sergius Ogun, for a job well done”.
The bill has passed second reading and referred to the House Committee on Health Institutions for further legislative work. The bill must see the light of day.
