Reversing Medical Tourism, Brain Drain In Nigeria

For decades, the Nigerian health sector has been bedeviled with a lot of challenges ranging from poor health facilities, brain drain, frequent strikes by health workers to poor health financing.

This has led to a lot of Nigerians traveling abroad for medical treatment. For instance, the minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, said Nigerians spend between $1.2 and $1.6 billion on medical tourism, adding that it is a huge drain on the country‘s foreign reserves.

To add to this is the huge brain drain that is rocking the health sector, especially in the wake of COVID-19 pandemic.

Member of the Society of  Gynaecology and Obstetrics of Nigeria (SOGON),  Dr. Abayomi Ajayi tells LEADERSHIP that the near total collapse of the health sector is imminent in the face of the need for medical professionals all over the world in the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Ajayi said nations of the world have been adversely affected by the pandemic, adding that Nigeria and a few other countries are providing the manpower to keep their population alive at the expense of our own citizenry.

When asked why they are leaving in troops, Ajayi said, „Many of them want a better life for themselves; Better salaries and allowances

Better opportunities for research; Better opportunities in career advancement and adoption of modern techniques and technologies; Opportunities for family relocation to greener pastures; Living a better life; No power failure, better transportation lower incidence of crime, kidnapping, herdsmen attack the list is endless.“

As effort to reverse medical tourism and brain drain in the health sector, Lai Mohammed, said the federal government is revamping the sector, to make it appealing for health professionals in Nigeria and abroad to work.

Mohammed recalled that, in the wake of COVID-19, the CBN set up the N100 billion Healthcare Sector Intervention Fund, now expanded to N200 billion, to provide credit support for the healthcare sector through long-term, low-cost financing.

„You are also aware of the Federal Government’s Intervention in the Healthcare Sector through the Nigerian Sovereign Investment Authority (NSIA). The NSIA has invested a total of $22.5 million in two diagnostic centers in Kano and Umuahia ($5.5 million each) and the NSIA-LUTH Cancer Centre in Lagos ($11.5 million). The NSIA is also committed to building a new quaternary hospital in Abuja,“ he added.

The essence of these financial interventions and projects in the critical healthcare sector is to fast-track the evolvement of world class healthcare facilities like this Duchess International Hospital, the minister said, adding that, „With that, we can conserve our foreign reserves, earn foreign exchange for the country, create jobs, reverse brain drain, become a destination for medical tourists and also ensure affordable and standard healthcare for Nigerians.“

In order to retain doctors, the minister said the Nigerian healthcare facilities must be equipped to world standard level and doctors and other healthcare workers must be adequately remunerated, adding that, facilities like Duchess International are veritable tools for job creation, in additional to attracting medical tourists from across the world.

Mohammed however commended the hospital for putting up such a world- class healthcare facility in Nigeria, noting that “with what we have seen today and the programme that has just been launched, Nigerians can now get access to affordable and quality healthcare in any area of medicine by obtaining a card for N5000 and consultancy fee to see an expert starting from N5000”.

The minister said with this friendly fee structure, Duchess Hospital has widen the population of Nigerians who can access quality healthcare, while expressing delight that many of the doctors at Duchess Hospital, a subsidiary of The Reddington Hospital Group, are Nigerians who had trained and worked abroad, but who have decided to return home to practice because of the availability of cutting edge medical facilities and good work environment.

In the same vein, the chief executive officer, Duchess International Hospital, Dr. Adetokunbo Shitta-Bey said with as little as N5000 registration to get family card and seeing renowned consultants starting from N5000, the management of Duchess Hospital is making a bold statement that the purpose-built, state-of-the art 100-bed hospital is not only for the elites.

Shitta-Bey, said the Access to Affordable World-class Healthcare programme was designed to “provide access to the hospital’s extensive range of high-quality services in emergency medicine and critical care, women’s health and paediatric care services, cardiovascular medicine, kidney dialysis, endoscopy, medical and surgical treatment interventions, dental treatments, eye care services and a wide variety of additional services and sub-specialties all available at a single location in the heart of Ikeja”.