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Craze For Medical Trips Abroad Wasteful — Doctor  

The Chief Medical Director of the Jos University Teaching Hospital (JUTH), Dr. Ishaya Pam, has described Nigerians’ tendency to rush abroad for every ailment as “wasteful and very unnecessary.”

Pam spoke to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Jos on Sunday in an interview.

“Most of such medical journeys are purely psychological. Some are even products of ignorance because the treatment being sought for is something some hospitals in Nigeria can provide at the cheapest rates.

“The truth is that people travel abroad for conditions that can be treated here either because of lack of confidence in our health system or because the resources are available to them.

“Government has to ensure that only those who need to travel abroad do so, especially people in the government or public sector.

“There is a system before these journeys are undertaken; you have to go through a medical board to certify that indeed the services that you require are not available in the country before the patient travels out.

“I think we need to tighten up on that system,” he said.

Pam said that government and all other stakeholders must convince such persons that there were quality medical services in the country, and steps should be taken to boost Nigerians’ confidence in what “the nation has to offer.”

The physician particularly commended Governor Idris Wada of Kogi for insisting on being treated in the country after the ghastly auto crash that almost claimed his life.

“Some other governors would have taken the next available air ambulance to America or Europe to be treated, but Wada insisted and stayed at home. He was effectively treated and is back at work,” he said.

He advised government to be more stringent in applying the relevant laws so as to minimise the waste of resources.

“Government should insist that only cases that cannot be handled here are taken abroad. People, who insist on going to treat the slightest headache abroad should be forced to use only their resources so as to check that unnecessary waste.”

Pam also observed that most of such journeys “are usually medically inadvisable, especially since such patients are flown out at a time they needed to stabilise and may not be able to cope with the stress of that movement.”

“A lot of people who rush out die in the process because you need to properly stabilise them before movement. It is difficult to survive such stress because the hours used for the journey should actually have been used for some intensive care by well equipped medical centres that are available locally.

“Rather than rushing abroad for even the most basic medical checkup, government official should work toward more investments into Nigeria’s medical centres to bring the facilities to date,” he stressed.

The physician specifically called for investments to enable medical centres cope with the challenge of cancers, “especially in the handling of advanced cases.”

“We need more equipment to handle that. We need more resources to conduct more researches into that field and other fields to ensure further improve on healthcare delivery in Nigeria.

“It is in the interest of everyone, big or small, that health facilities are improved because we shall need such quality healthcare at one time or the other in our lives,” he pointed out.

Pam also emphasised the urgent need for everyone to subscribe to some health insurance scheme to ease access to quality health care services “especially during emergencies.”

“There should be universal coverage for everyone in one form of health insurance cover or the other. It is the only way to safeguard the nation from needless deaths due to non-availability of funds.”

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