A trial against one of the foremost Teaching Hospitals in Nigeria on the Brekete radio programme led by Ordinary President, Ahmed Isah, seems to be demarketing the status of Nigeria as a choice destination for healthcare tourism.
The trial seeks to tar the disclosure by the Minister for Health and Social Welfare, Professor Ali Pate, that the Federal government has implemented policies which are improving health care delivery in the country.
The policies include free ceaserean section at Federal Health facilities nationwide and state hospitals like Murtala Mohammed Specialist Hospital and Abdullahi Wase Hospital in Kano. It is aimed at reducing maternal and neonatal mortality in the country.
The trial on Brekete was sparked off by an allegation that a womb was removed from a female patient without anybody’s consent at the Aminu Kano Teaching Hospital (AKTH), Kano, in 2012. Her husband said she was taken there after a prolonged, life-threatening, labour.
Medical personnel on duty noticed her dire condition, did the necessary tests and realised that the baby has died in her ruptured womb. She was also bleeding.
A team of specialists operated on her and saved her life. The dead foetus was removed and handed over to her family for burial and the ruptured womb was also evacuated.
Over a decade after the consented operation that saved her life, she went to Brekete radio to allege that the operation she had was done without consent by anyone.
But her former husband has testified that the operation was with consent. The Aminu Kano Teaching Hospital said at a media conference that there was a written consent for the operation.
Ordinary President Ahmed Isah has not contacted the Aminu Kano Teaching Hospital to hear their side of the matter. Instead, he said that he was widening investigation into alleged widespread unconsented removal of wombs from rural women by healthcare workers in Nigeria.
According to himt his research suggests that harvested wombs were sold for around ₦80 million each, while unsuspecting victims of stolen wombs are compensated with two million Naira. So far he has not presented proven buyers and sellers of wombs on his show.
As an advocate for healthcare journalism to raise consciousness on the importance of health, I feel that bandying unproven allegations of womb harvesting against medical care providers is problematic. While it pushes Nigerians abroad to seek medical care, it creates doubt about the efficacy of our healthcare system and may drive away those coming to Nigeria for medical care.
The Minister of Health and Social Welfare, Professor Ali Pate recently told State House Correspondents that patients from other countries come to Nigeria for healthcare services.
“People are now beginning to come to Nigeria from the region (African countries) to receive quality healthcare. This is already happening, including people from far away places like the United Kingdom and United States.”
Professor Pate explained that Nigeria’s healthcare system is being transformed: “The transformation that the president promised is beginning to happen. We need to sustain it, and we are investing, and we will continue to invest in that direction.”
Sadly, the Brekete radio show may be questioning the improvement in the healthcare system by portraying our health facilities and practitioners negatively. The Brekete insinuations on alleged widespread womb harvesting among Nigeria’s 90,000 health professionals are too sweeping to be true.
Members of the Nigerian Medical Association and other health professionals should have a common stand on the alleged theft of wombs as stated by Ordinary President Ahmed Isah in one of his video clips.
The seemingly stage-managed trial of Aminu Kano Teaching Hospital by Brekete radio cannot dent the positive reputation earned by the Hospital in pioneering kidney transplantation and maggots therapy among public hospitals in Nigeria. The glorious feat of removing tumour from brains and conducting open heart surgery at AKTH cannot be dimmed by the unproven allegations.
The happiness of patients who benefitted from medical services at the Hospital, the medical doctors and other health workers trained and groomed successfully for Nigeria by AKTH tutors cannot be erased at the behest of unknown forces..
