President, govs should use public health care — NMA

The Nigeria Medical Association has said until the law compels public office holders, including the President, to patronise public health care facilities, the inadequacies of the health sector will persist.
The National President, NMA, Dr. Osahon Enabulele, in an interview with our correspondent on Friday, lauded the Kogi State Governor, Idris Wada, who was injured in a car accident, for insisting on being treated in Nigeria.
Enabulele argued that medical practitioners in the country had the expertise to make the health care system competitive.
He said, “We are asking all Nigerians in the position of authority to emulate Wada. We have charged the government at different levels to have confidence in the health care system and stay on the same queue with the masses to patronise health care facilities in their domain.
“If the President stays on the same queue with Nigerians at the National Hospital in Abuja to procure health care services, people will start to believe in that facility; people will get serious about committing resources and excellence to the development of the hospital.
“Certainly, I will advise that all those in position of authority, as a way of driving confidence in the health care facilities, to show examples by lining up. It doesn’t take anything away from them; they are public servants.
“There is no use voting resources or making budgets for facilities that you don’t personally utilise. There will be an urgent need to develop the system, knowing full well that Mr. President and the governors are going to use it.”
He explained that the country had a poor regulatory and constitutional framework for health. He said while the 1999 Constitution had a “very insular provision” for health care, medical practitioners were happy about the National Health Bill at the National Assembly.
The NMA boss said, “When a public office holder travels, several aides have to travel with them at the expense of tax payers. Without limiting their fundamental rights to procure health care services anywhere in the world, if they have to do that, it should not be at the expense of tax payers. There must be necessary restrictions of public officers travelling every now and then abroad.”
“In this country, there are experts who have made breakthroughs in medical research. They have been celebrated by foreigners and yet we fail to celebrate them; and we also fail to utilise their services.”
He noted that the recent stem cell transplantation at the University of Benin Teaching Hospital was a medical breakthrough for the country, being the first in the West-Africa sub-region and the third in Africa. He said in spite of that, people still travel abroad for stem cell transplantation.
“Again, Nigerians have done kidney transplant and other things that, ordinarily, if it were to be in other countries, they would be celebrated. Medical tourism is all about advertising and celebrating what you have, and to create a fertile ground for experts to deliver on their expertise,” he said.