By MefLyn Anwana, Uyo
Research by the federal ministry of Health has revealed that Public officials traveling abroad for medical care in 2014 spent over $1billion of taxpayers’ funds.
The revelation came in a meeting of stakeholders in the ministry to strengthen efforts to implement the National Health Act, recently.
Available estimates show that up to 40 medical trips to India alone were embarked on mostly by public officials at government expense.
“The issue of medical tourism in Nigeria is a great challenge going by what is going on right now. It is not what we want”, said Dr Francis Ukwuije, health economist at the ministry and head, Healthcare Financing and Equity aspect of the Act’s core secretariat.
“Nigerians are often not satisfied with the quality of care they receive at home due to the quality of personnel, available equipment at health facilities and quality of drug they get. This creates higher fidelity on drugs they get out there even when it is more expensive". Dr King Darrah Mbom stated
With the commencement of Operations at the state of the art medical center Ibom Specialist hospital, Nigerians will no longer need to travel to India for medical treatment.
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