Nurses association urges Nigerians not to vote for any politician engaged in medical tourism

NIGERIA'S University Graduates of Nursing Science Association (Ugonsa) has urged the electorate not to vote for any candidate involved in medical tourism in next year's elections as the practise is destroying the nation's healthcare sector.

Known as health tourism, Nigeria is said to be spending $1bn a year on the practise of politicians and public officials going abroad for medical treatment. President Muhammadu Buhari has made the practice very popular during his eight years in office as he flies to the UK annually for medical treatment.

In February this year, Nigeria's House of Representatives passed an anti-medical tourism bill that will punish public office holders who seek medical treatment abroad with a seven year jail term or a N500m ($1.2m) fine. Still awaiting its final reading, the motion was titled A Bill for an Act to Amend the National Health Act, 2014 and for Related Matters.

With elections looming in February next year, Ugonsa has asked voters to shun any politician who gets his or her medical treatment abroad. issuing communique ay the end of its conference in Abakaliki, the association said it was beyond shame that the Nigerian health system that once ranked among the best 10 in the world is now 187 out of 191.

Ugonsa's statement read: “How do we come to terms with the Federal Ministry of health’s estimation that Nigeria loses about $2bn annually to medical tourism? It is heart wrecking, especially when it is obvious that this money, if put together over the next five years and deployed for the upgrade of our health facilities, health research capabilities and healthcare infrastructures, can launch our health system to among the best five in the world.

“Rather than pay attention to fixing our health system, our politicians are shamelessly busy competing on whom to win the ignoble title of Medical Tourist One of Nigeria. Our hospitals are in shambles because our politicians and their families are not treated in our hospitals and they will be fixed to be in the world-class ranking any day our political class starts getting treatment from our hospitals.

“It is high time medical tourism became a topic for the acceptance or rejection of politicians at the polls. Politicians who seek treatment abroad are directly telling other Nigerians that it is their own lives alone that matter and that the rest of us are sub-humans that deserve to be treated in the mere consulting clinics they have egregiously reduced our hospitals to.

“The callousness and insensitivity of our politicians to our health system have forced seasoned healthcare professionals, especially doctors and nurses, to seek shelter in the responsive health system of other countries with responsible leaders where their skills, professional development and remuneration are enhanced. Ironically, our politicians are treated abroad by these same seasoned Nigerian healthcare professionals that left our health system abroad out of sheer frustration.

“The poor performance of our health system in global ranking has never been the fault of our healthcare professionals. It is a systematic fault of not putting the right facilities and motivation in place by the country’s successive leadership to enable our healthcare professionals to replicate the type of wonders they have been performing when they travel abroad in our own health system.

“The monies wasted on medical tourism are enough to rejig our health system and make a competing payment to the healthcare professionals that will dissuade those currently practicing in the country from contemplating going abroad and compel those that have left for greener pastures to return home. It is an affront to our collective sensibility to see our politicians abandon our hospitals that they have run aground through age-long fund deprivation and neglect for the treatment of helpless Nigerians that elected them, while they themselves jet out abroad at the sight of a headache to be treated in well organised, well-furnished, and well-funded hospitals with taxpayers’ monies."