The decision by President Muhammadu Buhari to travel to London for medical treatment over ‘a persistent ear infection’ further highlights the near collapse of the country’s health infrastructure.
According to sources close to Aso Rock, the cost of the trip which includes aviation fuel, accommodation allowances for the President and his team, feeding allowance and medical bills, will likely cost Nigerian taxpayers’ up to £millions.
An online medium recent report shows that a normal two-day long Buhari trip rates between $350K and $500K. For instance, during the last presidential trip to Tehran, the capital of Iran, the travel expenses for accompanying presidency officials was $105K.
Furthermore, transportation budgets stood at $45K, accommodation $200K, allowance $10K, contingency $20K, with media coverage costs at $10K.
Nigerian economic and medical analysts posit that the ear, nose and throat treatment for which President Buhari has travelled abroad to treat, would have been easily catered for, if the Nation’s health infrastructure were operating optimally, and consequently save money for the nation.
“With an allocation of N2.8bn to the State House Medical Centre (Aso Rock Clinic), one expects it to boast of best-in-class facilities that can treat an ear infection. However, the Nigerian President is having the luxury that an average citizen cannot afford,” Oluseun Onigbinde, co-founder, BudgIT, civic tech organisation tells BusinessDay.
He laments that capital allocation to an average Federal Medical Centre still ranges around only N100m – N200m.
“The capital allocation for the Aso Rock Clinic (N2.8bn) is greater than the capital allocation of the 22 Federal Medical Centres (N2.69bn) put together. President Buhari’s recent health travel should give him a lot of introspection on the state of healthcare in Nigeria, the gross underfunding and his government must be seen in haste to fix it,” he said.
Onigbinde regrets that billions of dollars that should help the ailing Nigerian economy is being pumped into the economy of other countries by over 30,000 Nigerians who reportedly travel overseas for medical purpose.
In Akwa Ibom, a multibillion-naira specialist hospital built by the administration of Godswill Akpabio, former governor, now a serving senator was abandoned in favour of an overseas trip when he was involved in a traffic crash last year.
The estimated $1 billion spent on medical tourism by Nigerians can provide 6 world-class hospitals, according to analysts, with at least 238 beds in each of Nigeria’s geo-political zones at $167 million.
In 2015, a specialist hospital in the UK funded by the NHS built in Cramlington has 210 beds, and completed at the cost of $134 million. In India, lower costs are achieved and most certainly, better outcomes are achievable in Nigeria.
Each of these hospitals if established in Nigeria will be able to provide specialty wards for Surgery, Trauma, Cardiology, Respiratory, Elderly care (including stroke), Gastrointestinal, and Operating theatres for emergency / high risk surgery.
Nigeria has been described as one of the biggest sufferers of medical tourism in the world.
Factors like inadequate medical equipment and personnel, and also inadequate infrastructures have greatly contributed to the abysmal state of Nigeria’s healthcare sector.
Inadequate health facilities have culminated into lack of faith in the health sector, a condition that constantly leads to the increase of top public officers and other wealthy Nigerians with life threatening ailments travelling abroad in search of better medical care.
The Nigerian Sovereign Investment Authority (NSIA) in collaboration with the International Finance Corporation (IFC) disclosed earlier this year, that they would be making considerable investments worth billions of dollars in order to curtail the challenges that have reduced the Nigerian health sector to its dilapidated state.
“Currently, we have $400m in our reserves and we have earmarked $140 million to healthcare infrastructure and this is especially crucial, given the research we recently conducted which revealed that over $1 billion is incurred by roughly 30,000 Nigerians annually on healthcare services outside the country,” said Stella Ojekwe-Onyejeli, chief risk officer and executive director, NSIA.
“Cardiovascular, Orthopaedics, Renal and Cancer treatments make up 80 percent of the reasons for the trips by Nigerians outside the country on health issues,” Onyejeli added.
Analysts say the collaboration represents potential for private driven entities to seize the opportunities, which abound in the health sector.
They say that by redirecting the cash flow into the comatose local health sector, capital flight will be avoided, more Nigerians will be employed through this value chain, and the country may be on the path to becoming a destination for medical tourism itself.
The private sector-the biggest provider of healthcare services in Nigeria also struggles to stay afloat in a pool of challenges, which has deterred the sector in delivering affordable, accessible and quality health care services.
NATHANIEL AKHIGBE & CALEB OJEWALE
