The Acting Executive Secretary/Chief Executive Officer of National Health Insurance Scheme, Dr Femi Akingbade has said that Nigerians engage in medical tourism because they lack confidence in the country’s health system.
Akingbade in an interview with Leadership said “First of all, medical tourism is because one of the nature of Nigerians, the confidence of people on the healthcare system in the country is almost eroded, so for those that can afford it, they prefer to go to where the system seems stable but sometimes it is not true.
“We have seen situations where people go to India or Germany and yet they still die, it is not sacrosanct that they live. We have also tried to ameliorate that by setting up special tertiary intervention that can actually promote hospitals in Nigeria that can equally perform this tertiary interventions that people run abroad for.
“Since last year we started that, we have done alot of heart transplants, kidney replacement and so many other things in the tertiary sphere and it has been very successful. Medical tourism will be eroded once the health system is stabilised. Alot of monies like you have pointed out go out of this country, people say as much as 250bn is going out.
“These are resources that are out -of-pocket that can be used to develop the health sector of the country. I am sure we will get there and medical tourism will be a thing of the past. I am optimistic that by the time we setup what we are planning, lots of people will even be coming to Nigeria and we will attract more gains to the economy. This is the time for change and I am totally committed to it.”