How Buhari Is Fighting Medical Tourism – Minister

Buhari Set To Curb Medical Tourism

The commitment of President Muhammadu Buhari to fighting medical tourism particularly by the country’s elite has been reiterated again.

Minister of state for health, Senator Olororunnimbe Mamora stated the resolve of the President to counter medical tourism.

He spoke in Abuja on Monday when he hosted a team from CPL Medical Group Limited, a local engineering company engaged in the rehabilitation of teaching hospitals in the country, NAN reports.

The minister stated that all the factors encouraging medical tourism by Nigerians are been tackled by the current administration.

He also promised improved working conditions for practitioners in the health sector of the country as well as the provision of more equipment needed in the medical facilities across Nigeria.

“President Mohammadu Buhari has resolved to curb medical tourism by supporting initiatives from individuals and groups,” Mamora said.

“We are focused on improving working conditions in the hospitals because medical tourism is not necessarily an outcome of lack of medical equipment. It encompasses factors like lack of conducive hospital environment and poor attitude of health workers towards health care delivery.”

Earlier, Albert Awofisayo, chairman of CPL, gave an update on the group’s partnership with the federal government on the special presidential intervention project to advance the tertiary health sector in the country.

The chairman revealed plans by the group to construct a green-field 500-bed ‘Federal Centre of Medical Excellence’ in Abuja with the support of Mayo Clinic, Rochester, USA.

He also appealed for government’s support towards the successful implementation of the rehabilitation of the 22 federal university teaching hospitals.

Meanwhile, Naija News reports President Buhari in 2017 alone, spent about three months in London on medical vacation.

In August, the president lamented that Nigeria loses about N400 billion to medical tourism annually.