Leadership of Trade Union Congress (TUC) on Sunday stressed the need for President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration to revamp the health sector with the view to reduce the over $1 billion capital flight spent by Nigerians on medical tourism annually.
Similarly, the Congress emphasised urgent need for the Federal Government to immediately establish specialised laboratories for research and diagnosis on viral haemorrhagic fevers in each of the six geo-political zones in the bid to effectively tackle the scourge of Lassa fever.
Bobboi Kaigama and Musa Lawal, TUC president and secretary general, who gave the charge via a statement obtained by BusinessDay, noted that the establishment of these facilities would help in stemming the “life threatening diseases before they go viral.
“If the recent report on medical tourism as said by the Minister of State for Health, Dr. Osagie Ehanire, is anything to go by, it just does not make any sense that over $1 billion is being spent by Nigerians on medical tourism abroad annually for illnesses that our tertiary hospitals can handle.
“This administration of President Muhammadu Buhari must discourage the practice. Government has to make health care delivery available to majority of Nigerians.”
To this end, the TUC chiefs also advised the three tiers of government and other health professionals to put their acts together and redouble their efforts to ensure that emerging and re-emerging infections and diseases that had claimed many lives in the recent past were drastically curbed.
“It is our thinking that experiences of the past should by now make the leadership pro-active enough instead of the usual reactive measures. There is dire need for specialised laboratories for research and diagnosis on viral haemorrhagic fevers in each geo-political zone to enable us nip in the bud these life threatening diseases before they go viral.
“A case in point happened in Lagos, where an infected patient who came on a visit from another state was detected.”
On the efforts made so far by the government, the Congress argued that the current position and numbers of Confirmatory Centres for Lassa established so far, fall short of National Public Health Act, which emphasis on Universal Health Coverage.
While urging relevant authorities not to trivialise issue of health, shelter and clothing as cardinal agenda of the change mantra, the labour leaders emphasised the need for “training and re-training of health personnel in specialised areas towards averting these persistent health challenges be seriously considered.
“It is unheard of that some health workers in a particular state ran away when someone got infected. In the past, health workers will stake out their lives to save a patient unlike what we have today. Probably because they know that there is no insurance cover nor special incentives should they lose their lives in the course of doing their job.
“Finally, while we acknowledge that all sectors of the economy are very critical, it should be taken into cognisance that one needs to be alive and well to be able to undertake other responsibilities. It is time to be proactive not reactive,” the statement read.
