Ban on resident doctors’ ll end medical tourism – Forum

By Usman Ibn A. Lapai

Kaduna

A non-governmental organisation, the Unified Nigeria Youth Forum (UNYF), has called on resident doctors in the country to accept the ban of doctors working in public hospitals from engaging in private practice, saying this would discourage Nigerians from seeking medical attention abroad.
The Forum in a statement issued in Kaduna yesterday by its President, Abdulsalam Mohammed Kazeem, commended the decision of the federal government, adding that “the action stopping the medical doctors from engaging on unwholesome practices is long overdue.”
“The recent statement by the wife of Mr. President, Hajiya Aisha Buhari, on the state of Aso Rock Clinic has further exposed the root of the problem in our health sector. It has clearly shown that if over N3.9billion was budgeted for Aso Rock Clinic and there is nothing on ground to show, then our federal medical centres and teaching hospitals are death traps.
“We, as a group, salute the courage of the federal government on the recent decision to ban all medical doctors working in public hospitals from engaging in private practice, as a decision that is long overdue,” he said.
The Forum explained that the failure of successive governments at all levels to put a complete stop to medical tourism has been responsible for the systemic trauma in the health sector in the country, which has further exposed our inability to fix our health system.

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