FG Plans Big On Health Facilities To Discourage Medical Tourism – Health Minister

The Federal Government is committed to upgrading infrastructure in all the nation’s health institutions to reverse medical tourism, Minister of Health, Prof. Isaac Adewole, said on Thursday in Lagos.

Adewole spoke in Lagos at the inauguration of the permanent secretariat building of the West African College of Surgeons (WACS) in Yaba, Lagos.

The minister said that medical tourism cost Nigeria an estimated $1 billion yearly.

He blamed medical tourism by Nigerians on shortage of fund to upgrade infrastructure in the nation’s health facilities.

“We are looking for more money to upgrade our facilities across the country.

“We are trying to perfect at least seven of our tertiary institutions in 2017.

“We are also providing resources to all teaching and functioning medical centres, so that they can operate at the level of good hospitals.

“Our plan is that each of the teaching hospitals will receive N300 million, while the medical centres will receive N120 million each.

“All these will make them to provide basic needs like water, electricity and modern equipment that will enable them to function well,” the minister said.

Adewole called for joint efforts of medical personnel to ensure that quality healthcare system was sustained.

Also, the President of WACS, Prof. Akinyinka Omigbodun, said that the newly inaugurated project would enhance the college’s post-graduate surgical education.

“We were sharing offices before, but now that we have our own building, there will be post-graduate clinical and surgical training, a print and electronic library, which will help the profession,” he said.

WACS was established first as Association of Surgeons of West Africa in 1960, but formally became a college in 1983.

It has trained over 5,000 fellows in which 80 per cent of them were Nigerians.

(NAN)