The Chairman House Committee on Health Institutions at the 9th National Assembly and Member Representing Ideato North and Ideato South federal constituency, Hon. Dr. Paschal Chigozie Obi, has assured that medical tourism will soon be a thing of the past in the country.
Hon. Obi gave the assurance in Abuja when he led the committee members on an oversight visit to the University of Abuja Teaching Hospital (UATH) Gwagwalada.
He stressed the need for the federal government to implement recommendations it made on bringing the facility to a world class standard.
Obi noted that poor budgetary allocation to tertiary hospitals in the past was the reason for poorly equipped facility, however, he expressed satisfaction on the improvement in the appropriation bill which had enabled the renovation as well as construction of new blocks at the hospital.
“We thank the federal government especially the federal ministry of health who listened to us and gave reasonable budgetary provisions to this Health Institution because when we visited last year we discovered that even their budget for the year 2020 was anything but good and yet we want them to perform magic which we know they can’t with bare hands,” he said.
“When we drew their attention to that they responded positively and today we are here on oversight activities as mandated by the 1999 constitution of Nigeria as amended.
The CMD has taken us round the hospital and we saw all the project at hand, ongoing ones and of course we didn’t see any abandoned projects,” he said.
“Medical tourism is expected to reduce because when we visited the institutions last year for oversight activities we made recommendations to the federal government and as soon as the federal government implement those recommendations medical tourism will be a thing of the past.
“We also expect the federal government to go further by increasing the renumeration of healthworkers and make them have a better working environment and if these are done Medical tourism will be a thing of the past,” he added.
Member of the committee Representing Jos South, Jos East federal constituency Dachung Musa Bagos, lauded the pace of work at the facility, he however urged the management to improve on the IGR unit so as to discourage medical tourism.
“The IGR is low and won’t be able to attract people from the city center, you need to do more because people still travel abroad but if you have the right equipment and let the world know about it medical tourism will reduce,” he stressed.
Earlier, the Chief Medical Director of the UATH Prof. Bissalla Ekele, explained that the 280 million appropriated to the hospital in 2020 has been well utilized with some projects completed while construction work is ongoing, stressing that much still needed to be achieved but for lack of funds.
“We were given only 284 million in the 2020 budget and that has not reflected in our activities as it should. It’s a teaching hospital and we don’t think we have done enough but we have moved from 350 bed hospital to a 520 bed hospital yet we have challenges of bed space especially in the accident and emergency units.
“In procurement of equipments, the cardiovascular unit in particular with state of the art eco machines all supplied by G-international took a 110 million fully paid, supplied and functional.
“Expansion of the emergency casualty unit which was a carryover project from 2019 we spent 32million on that and job has been completed. There was also need to furnish the casualty complex it was our plan to buy 100 beds and side lockers which was to consume 32 million but we used that to furnish the wards in the first floor since an NGO was occupying the down floor at the time,” he explained.
“Our biggest project in 2020 was the construction of the mental health ward which was to cost 248 million but only 100 million was appropriated but because of the importance of the project to us we paid the contractors all the 100 million we got and since 5months of the foundation laying ceremony the 64-bed building is in fast progress.
“We also made provisions for electronic medical record which is an ongoing project but unfortunately it was only 10million that was appropriated and we have made some procurement but there is a lot yet to be done,” he added.
