Nigerians Spend over N120bn Annually on Medical Tourism

The President of the Nigerian Medical Association (NMA), Dr. Osahon Enabulele, has disclosed that Nigerians spend over N120 billion annually on medical tourism while about 5,000 patients travel to India monthly for treatment, describing the trend as ugly and unacceptable. Speaking at a press conference in Sokoto yesterday, Enabulele expressed concern at the increasing number of Nigerians seeking medical treatment abroad, which according to him, drains the nation of huge foreign exchange. He noted that most of the ailments could be handled by competent medical personnel in the country rather than spend huge amount of money for treatment abroad. According to him, the NMA had been encouraging political and public office holders to patronise public hospitals in Abuja and other parts of the country rather than going overseas for minor ailments that could be handled locally. "We have been encouraging our public and political office holders to patronise Nigerian hospitals. We want our president, governors, local government chairmen to patronise our hospitals and primary health centres rather than going abroad for minor ailments. "In fact, things have gone so bad in the country that some Nigerians travel abroad in order to conduct medical check-up on simple things

like blood pressure," he said. He commended Kogi State Governor, Capt. Idris Wada, for patronising local hospitals instead of going abroad for treatment when he had accident last year. The NMA president stressed that Nigeria has the resources and manpower to tackle most ailments ravaging Nigerians and called on the government to improve the health sector. Enabulele said to this end, the NMA had been canvassing for laws to address issues of medical tourism in the country. continued