Dubbed the largest economy in Africa, owing to its Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of $500 billion, Nigeria’s healthcare status appears to be inversely proportional to the country’s GDP. A health system yet to sustain the huge economic status recently acquired in Africa has witnessed the nation’s health sector beleaguered with a plethora of challenges ranging from brain drain of its workforce, dearth of infrastructure and reliable data/market size, and lack of confidence in the sector.
While figures released by the Indian High Commission show that 47 percent of Nigerians who visited India for medical purposes amounted to 18,000 persons, expending 41.6 billion ($260 million) in scarce foreign exchange in the process, this trend emanates from inequality in access to healthcare and dearth of medical facilities which have remained major upsets to Nigeria’s healthcare indices.
As N100 billion is estimated to be spent on overseas treatment by Nigerians annually, reversing the trend with diverse skill set in modern medicine and multi-investor health facility, stakeholders believe is key in a bid to make Nigeria the destination hub for medical excellence in Africa.
Femi Olugbile, ex-Permanent Secretary, Lagos State Ministry of Health, said that Nigerians in the Diaspora can restore hope to the health sector by establishing private health facilities that will become centre of excellence across the nation.
With a large number of highly skilled Nigerians in medical practice in different parts of the world, Olugbile stated that if enabling environment was created for these foreign-based professionals to bring their experience and capital home to create good quality health facilities, the nation would be making a major strategic move towards realising its potential in health care delivery.
Making this known at the inauguration of the LouisMed Hospitals, Lekki, founded by a professor of obstetrics and specialist gynaecologist, Akin Bamigboye, Olugbile said since more than 60 per cent of doctor-patient consultations that take place any day in Lagos State occur in a private facility, government at all levels should utilise the combined efforts of everyone, public and private, to begin to meet the medical needs of the people.
According to Olugbile “If an ambience could be created, with government taking a leading role, whereby perceivable challenges are tackled and substantially resolved, we would be presented with a private sector able to deliver world-class health services.”
Abike Dabiri-Erewa, chairman, House Committee on Diaspora Affairs, tasked Nigerians to demand the best from their leaders, especially in the area of health care delivery. Recounting her encounter with Bamigboye during an emergency gynaecological challenge, Dabiri-Erewa stated that Nigerian doctors in the Diaspora were the answers to the nation’s rather comatose health sector.
Responding, Akin Bamigboye, Chief Medical Director, LouisMed Hospitals, said a country’s rate of maternal mortality was an undeniable indication of its state of health care delivery.
Lamenting the high rate of maternal and child mortality in Sub-Saharan Africa generally and Nigeria in particular, the multiple-award winning physician said the government got it wrong by neglecting to prioritise health care delivery.
While LouisMed Hospital envisions being a centre of excellence in gynaecology and reproductive medicine, Bamigboye stated that where a partnership with medical schools will ensure that medical registrars can have skills acquired without clamouring for overseas posting, it will undertake important scientific research
“This will make our centre highly relevant in addressing issues of scientific importance using evidence based approach in the discharge of healthcare services. This is a pilot of bigger ambition in years to come,“ Bamigboye stated.
A peep into delivering healthcare to Nigerians reveal that medical equipment in some hospitals were bedevilled with irregular maintenance and upgrades, and diagnostic services not readily within reach, thereby raising questions of quality control, availability, timeliness and reliability.
Ambulatory services are often not available or affordable, absence of internationally recognised certifications, a weak regulatory and supervisory framework, and weak framework for legal indemnities.
Added to the challenges include the issue of paucity of equity funds (inappropriate loan structure, short tenor and high interest rate), poor economics of scale resulting in weak cost absorption and recovery, weak branding, poor governance structure, absence of professional management at strategic level, poor staffing in terms of number and specialties of doctors and other healthcare providers. These have resulted in the low standard of care in the country.
The approach to reversing the medical tourism problem in Nigeria, stakeholders believe must be holistic and imperative, with the aim of developing the private sector healthcare,
They believe there is need to improve access to capital, develop and enforce quality standards, mobilise public and donor money to the private sector, modify local policies and regulations to foster the role of the private sector and foster risk pooling rogrammes (Health Insurance).
No doubt, unlocking the market potential for health services in the country will create an enabling environment for the private sector to grow, thereby ensuring Nigeria itself becomes a destination for medical tourism, rather than a source of exodus.
