The Senator representing Adamawa south Senatorial district in the National Assembly, Sen. Binos Dauda Yaroe, has said banning medical tourism is not a solution to Nigeria’s health challenges.
He said the move will rather send more Nigerians to their early grave.
He stated this in an interview with journalists in Jada local government area of Adamawa state at the closing ceremony of his 4-day free medical outreach in the local government.
He stated that the only way to end medical tourism is for the country to upgrade its health facilities so that not only Nigerians but people from outside the country can patronise Nigeria and get the best of medical care.
“I believed that anybody that has a means to get the kind of services he wants to get can go anywhere and get it. The challenge we have is to upgrade our own health facilities so that not only Nigerians but people from outside the country can also patronise Nigeria and get health care. It is only when we addressed these infrastructural challenges in the health sector and make it a world class standard that we can end medical tourism.
“It is the responsibility of government to put in place policies that will improve the health sector so that our people can received their health care treatment here in Nigeria rather than going outside the country and I don’t think that should be done by way of a law prohibiting people from going outside the country to get medical attention. If you do that and the facilities are still not there, you are contributing in sending people to their early graves,” he said.
