By Tina George, Minna
The Niger state commissioner of Health, Dr Muhammad Makunsidi has disclosed that the COVID-19 pandemic has helped the state in reducing medical tourism abroad.
Speaking during the annual general meeting of the Kutigi Old Students’ Association (KUOSA) in Minna on Saturday, the Commissioner said the amount spent by the government on international medical tourism is enormous that should be stopped.
He said that the huge money spent by the government as assistance for people to travel abroad for treatment, was overwhelming the health system.
According to him, the state government spent over N300 million on medical tourism in 2019 while in 2020, the amount was cut short because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Makunsidi lamented that before the COVID-19 pandemic, people had started abusing the assistance by seeking for any little sickness that could be treated in Nigeria.
He disclosed that the government has a strategy where sicknesses that could be treated in the country are attended, for which government has expent N20 million in treating 483 people for treatments they wanted to go abroad for.
“We realized that people had started abusing medical assistance given to them by the government. So to this end, the ministry asked the government to assist with only treatments and surgeries that cannot be done in the country.
“There are times that people ask for assistance for a simple surgery that will cost N45,000 in Nigeria but going abroad would cost over N3 million.
“The state government have developed a sustainable framework to stop international medical tourism. This year, the Ministry was given N20 million for medical assistance and we have been able to treat 483 people in various treatments and surgeries they had earlier applied to be done abroad.”
In his paper presentation titled, ‘Medical Tourism; Matters Arising’, the Managing Director of the Federal Medical Center (FMC) Bida, Dr Aminu Usman noted that the reason why people go for medical treatment abroad tourism is because of the inadequate facilities and services in the hospitals.
In his address, the outgone Kutigi Old Students’ Association (KUOSA) National President, Pharmacist Hamza Yahaya appreciated members for their support during his tenure.
