Gloria Ikegbule
Doctor in-charge of Healing Stripes Hospital (HSH), a Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) project of The Redeemed Christian Church of God (RCCG), Dr. Ezinne Onyemere, has said the only way Nigeria can end medical tourism is to fix its health sector.
She said, “when Nigerians, including the president, travel abroad for medical care, what it does is to bring further neglect to the health system. With this issue, we will never get the system to work.
“The day the president decides that he must get his care here, he would know what the issues are and it would be fixed.”
Onyemere, while speaking with journalists in Lagos on the state of healthcare in Nigeria, said HSH, which is a partner of His Love Foundation, a charity arm of the church, has been supporting healthcare delivery in the country as government cannot address healthcare delivery alone.
She said: “The health sector has suffered neglect, but if the government focuses on making the system work, those who go for medical tourism will get better health care here.
“My recommendation is to create systems that will works. Quality healthcare delivery is a system. It is not private hospital, general hospital or government. It is a system. Once we are able to correct how that system goes from generating personnel to generating and maintaining the facilities, making sure that services are available and accessible and funding, it will be well.”