The Nigerian political elite behave like a colonial or apartheid elite. They inhabit an island of opulence and extravagance in an ocean of encompassing poverty and mass suffering. Without any personal stake in the institutions they administer, they are condescendingly uninterested in the decline and decay of Nigerian institutions.
The bane of the Nigerian health care delivery system is the refusal of the Nigerian power elite and their family members to utilise Nigerian hospitals. The first step in improving the state of Nigerian hospitals is in putting an end to medical tourism by our rulers and their family members, and thus, making it imperative that they use Nigerian hospitals.
As of 2014, overseas medical trips by high ranking government officials cost the federal government about N250 billion ($1.25 billion). The Jonathan administration tried to reduce medical tourism to its barest minimum by stopping government officials from seeking medical treatment abroad, except in cases it can be proven that the needed medical services do not exist in the country.
Nigerians had reasonably expected that President Buhari will reduce medical tourism and its attendant toll on public coffers, and corollary, improve the health services with the country. After more than four years of the Buhari presidency, medical tourism continues unhindered, and the healthcare delivery system remains moribund and in disarray.
The fundamental source of the problems of the Nigerian health system is obvious. The health system is suffering from neglect. Both at the state and federal levels, the system is underfunded. Due to corruption, a significant percentage of the health budget is peculated by government officials and hospital administrators.
There is mass exodus of doctors and other health workers, especially, the most qualified, to different countries of the world. With this alarming mix of woes, what can be expected of Nigerian hospitals?
These problems will continue to fester until those entrusted with the responsibility of solving them, the political elite, are forced to experience first-hand the horrors of our hospitals. Until medical tourism is severely curtailed, and the ruling elite are forced to experience first-hand the awfulness of the health system, our rulers will not genuinely address the troubles besetting the health sector.
Tochukwu Ezukanma,
Lagos.
