THE Federal Government has defended foreign medical trips by political leaders, arguing that people are free to seek treatment in any part of the world.
This is according to the Coordinating Minister of Health and Social Welfare Muhammad Pate.
“Don’t conflate the quality of our healthcare system and what it has to offer and the choices that individuals can make for various reasons. Some may choose because they’ve got a provider, or they have other things,” Pate said on Friday’s edition of Channels Television’s Politics Today monitored by News Point Nigeria.
“Tourism is something that everybody has a right to choose wherever he wants to go and you cannot constrain people. We are not in a communist system where you say, ‘Everybody has to be treated here’.”
Nigerian leaders have faced severe criticisms over the years for going abroad to seek medical care. Critics say the move is an indictment on the country’s health sector and shows the leaders do not trust Nigeria’s healthcare system.
In May, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) said Nigerians spent $3.82m on foreign healthcare-related services between January and December 2023.
But the minister said the country’s healthcare system is improving with top professionals working in Nigeria contrary to widely-held belief.
“I think if there’s one thing that I want you and your viewers to take away is that there is a disconnect between the prevailing narrative and facts on the ground; the perception that the elites can just walk away and $2 billion goes out in terms of outbound medical tourism,” the minister said.
“But then you have to look closely at our health facilities – federal tertiary institutions that are being reformed, what they are able to do – we have world-class professionals, some are here in Nigeria and some are Nigerians in the diaspora who are coming back here to provide services.
“But the narrative easily gets built that we don’t have anything here; as if we want to lose respect for ourselves.”
Pate insisted that “Everyone, whether rich or poor, whether powerful or weak, has the right to the privacy of their medical records.
“From medical ethics, the patient is king and the patient has the right to his or her privacy. “
