New Telegraph

Buhari: Blame health workers’ unfriendly attitude for medical tourism

President Muhammadu Buhari has blamed the unfriendly attitude of health workers towards patients, as the major factor responsible for pushing Nigerians to foreign countries to seek better health care services. The President lamented that, the unhygienic and lack of housekeeping standards by caregivers, as well as their hostile attitude, have resulted in the loss of confidence of Nigerians in the health system even more than the lack of the equipment.

Buhari spoke at the official commissioning of an International Conference Centre and Telemedicine hall and six other projects at the Federal Medical Centre (FMC), Abeokuta, Ogun State capital. Buhari who spoke through the Minister of Health, Dr. Osagie Ehanire, emphasised the need for continuous training and retraining of health workers to deliver quality health care services to Nigerians, insisting that only this will address the distrust of Nigerians for the country’s health system.

He said, “We still get all too often for comfort, disconcerting reports of not friendly attitudes of staff to patients, reports of unhygienic and housekeeping standards that leaves something to be desired even in the presence of sophisticated equipment and well qualified doctors.

“Such simple failings like this are more frequently responsible for the loss of confidence of the end users in our health system than even the lack of equipment. “They are the triggers for the distrust that will lead people to go on medical tourism.

“We have a lot of work to do in that area and I want to believe that the managers of our hospitals after such laudable, fantastic infrastructure investment will now begin to pay attention, not only to improving staff harmony and welfare, but to retraining health care givers for even better professionalism that deliver service in a productive and courteous atmosphere based on the lessons we learnt from our traditional African hospitality.” Also speaking, the President of the Senate, Ahmed Lawan noted that, the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic has given the Federal Government the opportunity to provide additional resources, particularly for infrastructure that will enable Nigeria address outbreak of pandemics in the future.

Lawan who was represented by the Chairman of Senate Committee on Health, Senator Ibrahim Oloriegbe, disclosed that, the Federal Government was building 10-bed Intensive Care Unit (ICU) centres, 30-bed isolation centres and well equipped, functional molecular laboratories in every of the 52 federal medical centres (FMCs) in Nigeria.

He assured that the Bill on the establishment of Ogun State University of Medicine and Medical Sciences, Abeokuta would be passed by the National Assembly before the end of April. The Speaker of the House of Representatives, Hon. Femi Gbajabiamila in his speech said, the projects were evidence of the fulfillment of promises made by the government and signified the continued progress of the FMC.” “It is the cardinal responsibility to ensure the welfare and the wellbeing of the people. Providing access to quality health care services that our people can afford is one way we serve their best interest,” said Gbajabiamila.”

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