President Muhammadu Buhari
President
Buhari's medical leave abroad has been criticized by Nigerian medical
practitioners who have advised him to use the highly equipped state
house clinic.
The Commonwealth Medical Association and the Nigerian Medical
Association have asked President Muhammadu Buhari to, henceforth, use
the State House Medical Centre, also known as Aso Rock Clinic.
While the CMA said the President should lead by example and desist
from travelling abroad for medical treatment, the NMA said it was not
opposed to him travelling to get a second opinion on his health.
The NMA, however, joined the CMA to urge the President to upgrade
the Aso Rock Clinic and all public health institutions across the
country to the level of the hospital that he used in London.
They said upgrading the clinic and the President’s subsequent
patronage of the centre would be the only way to justify the billions of
naira budgeted annually for the running of the clinic.
Findings by some correspondents had revealed that a total of
N3.16bn was allocated to the Aso Rock Clinic in the 2016 and 2017
budgets. Whereas, Saturday PUNCH had earlier reported, based on an
investigation, that lack of drugs and other medical items had crippled
operations at the clinic, which was designated to provide medical
services to the President, Vice-President, their families, aides,
members of staff of the State House and other entitled public servants.
But the Vice-President, Commonwealth Medical Association, Dr.
Osahon Enabulele, while speaking on the President’s recent medical
vacation to the United Kingdom, where he spent 104 days, told Saturday
PUNCH that it was highly embarrassing for political office holders in
the country to seek medical care abroad.
The Commonwealth Medical Association, which was established in
1952, is a non-governmental organisation set up to assist and strengthen
the capacities of national medical associations of countries within the
Commonwealth to improve the health, well-being and human rights of
their countries and communities.
Enabulele, who is also an Adviser to the World Medical Association,
told one of our correspondents in a telephone interview, that it was
“absolutely unfortunate” that while other economies were deriving
benefits from their inbound medical tourism, Nigeria had been losing
humongous sums of money in foreign exchange on account of its leaders’
medical tourism to other countries.
He said, “The country needs to think of how to reverse this
unfortunate trend. Nigeria is in a recession and this is not the time
for us to drain our economy by political office holders, whose expenses
are borne by the state. I hope and pray that we will have the right
leadership that will act by example to sort this out because that is the
first step.
“This would give greater confidence to other Nigerians to
explore the available medical services in the country. Leaders at all
levels need to look beyond their individualism to say, ‘If I want people
to utilise health care services in my country, I have to show that I
believe in those facilities by utilising them’.
“So, I will urge all political holders, including Mr.
President, to try to live by example. The President should try as much
as possible, irrespective of what may be the problem, to see how he can
stay in the country and see how he can get his medical needs attended to
at the State House Clinic, even if it means importing facilities that
are not available here.
“In any case, if N3.16bn was budgeted for the State House
Clinic in 2016 and 2017, I will expect that the money is supposed to
improve the clinic to a global standard that will have most of all the
needed facilities and equipment. There is no reason whatsoever to say
you are looking somewhere else for medical care. It is increasingly
embarrassing to see public office holders go outside the shores of
Nigeria to look for care.”
While speaking in Sokoto at the 56th annual general conference and
delegates meeting of the NMA in 2016, the President had said his
administration would not encourage expending the nation’s hard earned
resources on any government official seeking medical care abroad. But,
Enabulele stressed that this was one area the President needed to show
leadership direction.
Enabulele added, “The law as it currently exists in our
country, states very clearly that except in exceptional cases that have
been so determined by medical boards and with approval by the minister
of health, no political office holder has any right to be sponsored with
taxpayers’ resources for any foreign medical trip. So, even the laws
are there.
“Nigerian doctors are capable and some of those Nigerian
doctors abroad were trained in Nigeria. We have good experts and
formidable medical expertise with good intellectual capital base in
Nigeria. No country has it all but countries devise means of closing the
gaps.”
Meanwhile, the President of the Nigerian Medical Association, Prof.
Mike Ogirima, said if the Aso Rock Clinic was well equipped, the
President would not have been travelling outside the country to receive
medical care, given that the country had the expertise to treat his
ailment. “But lack of equipment is making things difficult,” he added.
He explained that even though the NMA was not against the President
seeking medical care abroad, as he was entitled to seek a second
opinion, the NMA would advocate that the government equip the nation’s
hospitals.
He said, “We are appealing to the President to replicate
whatever experience he had in London here at home. He should equip our
hospitals. We can’t keep funding the Aso Villa Clinic if it’s not being
used. That clinic should be equipped so as to cater for the President’s
medical need.
“The Federal Government has not been fulfilling an agreement it
signed with other members of the Economic Community of West African
States to set aside 15 per cent of the budget for the health care
sector. If this happens, we would be able to equip our hospitals so that
the President wouldn’t need to travel for medical treatment abroad
again.”
Also, the NMA Chairman, Ogun State chapter, Dr. Kunle Ashimi, said
poor equipment in Nigerian hospitals was responsible for the President’s
medical trip abroad, noting however that hospitals should be equipped
to stop medical tourism.
He added, “Lack of equipment is the problem Nigerian health
care system is facing. We have the expertise to treat anybody. Go all
over the world, Nigerian doctors excel because they have access to
equipment.
“The Aso Villa Clinic could have gulped billions of naira, but
it might be lacking the equipment to treat the President’s ailment. And
sometimes, just one medical equipment could cost ten times more than the
whole hospital building. No one knows the illness of the President, but
I am sure if there were equipment in the Villa Clinic, he could have
invited his doctors to come to Nigeria to treat him.
“What we need to do is to stop paying lip service to our health
care sector. We should spend hugely on our hospitals and medical
tourism would end.”
Meanwhile, reacting to the revelation by the Minister of State for
Health, Dr. Osagie Ehanire, that Nigerians spent more than $1bn on
medical tourism annually, some dons have called on the government to put
an end to such recurring issue.
A professor of virology and former President of the Nigerian
Academy of Science, Oyewale Tomori, said people would continue to travel
abroad until the government addressed the issues that compelled them to
seek medical treatment aboard.
He, therefore, called on the government to address the issues and see if medical tourism would not be a thing of the past.
He said, “It’s not that our doctors are not good, within the
limit of the facilities they have, but a doctor without equipment is as
good as helpless. When India had the same problem in the health sector,
the government created the conducive environment for their hospitals to
be good, now they have the equipment and personnel.
“When we improve our medical services, people would stop going
overseas, and it would be cheaper to get treatment at home than
travelling abroad. But if we don’t address the foundational problems, I
mean, issues like lack of equipment, electricity supply, water supply,
the scourge of fake drugs, etc., if we don’t address them, there would
continue to be medical tourism because people won’t get the kind of
treatment they want.
“The leadership also plays a role. In a case where the
President spent over 100 days abroad for treatment, how do you tell
people not to do same? Like the NMA told him, create the environment
here and you won’t have to go there. That is the only way.”
Also, a professor of psychology at the Obafemi Awolowo University,
Toba Elegbeleye, said the menace had continued to grow because hospitals
in Nigeria lacked all the necessary equipment and the fact that people
now ascribe some prestige to getting treatment abroad.
He, however, called on the government to address these issues to bring an end to the scourge.
He added, “It has a psychological side to it and I would
ascribe it to colonial mentality. There was a time when even the royalty
in Saudi Arabia used to come to the University College Hospital in
Ibadan, Oyo State, and the University of Lagos to receive medical
attention. So, I wonder why we are here now.
“Now, people like to celebrate that their parents died in
London while receiving treatment. Although, we cannot fail to recognise
that there may be better facilities there, so there may be an iota of
truth in their fears.
“However, the way out is to equip the hospitals and change our
mindset that nothing is good until it is done abroad. I even want to
believe that if all our hospitals are equipped more than the ones in
London and other places, people would still go there. But if we can
refocus our mind, starting from a leader that is forthright, I think we
may begin to have a change of heart. It’s in our attitude and world
outlook. Since we are a praying nation, we would continue to pray that
government put an end to it; it needs to be addressed.”
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