Foreign medical trips
RECENT news reports that foreign medical treatment for public officers may be outlawed is a good omen for the ailing health sector in the country. If seen through, in the passing of a bill pending at the Senate, the proposal portends a positive development for the country. We enjoin the lawmakers to see the bill in equally positive light, as a measure capable of saving huge foreign exchange for the nation, for utilisation in several pressing spheres of the nation's life. Moreover, if properly anchored, such a law will be an antidote for the comatose health sector which is suffering from official neglect. It is instructive that the neglect is endemic because top public servants who are supposed to formulate and implement policies for the upliftment of the vital sector have apparently limitless opportunities to give medical treatment to themselves abroad. Worse still, this is done at the public expense and with public fund. Surely this is not a situation that should be left to fester. Even now, the practice is already overdue for a drastic review.
The bill, co-sponsored by two senators, seeks to bar public officers from travelling abroad for medical treatment at public expense. One of the sponsors of the bill, Senator Ibiapuye Martyns-Yellowe who is chairman, Senate Committee on the Environment explained that the proposed law, if passed, would "restrict overseas medical attention for public officers at public expense only to the condition of lack of expertise." Its objectives are two-fold. One, to discourage public fund being expended on the health of a tiny minority; and secondly to stimulate efforts to step up the nation's health sector. The principle, according to Martyns-Yellowe, is that "if all persons cannot be given equal opportunity to the best possible health facility in Nigeria in the public sector, nobody should have access to the best possible health facility abroad at public expense."
The principle is commendable and deserves support. If there is one reason to compel public servants to focus more sharply on local health delivery, it is to stop them from hopping abroad for medical attention at the slightest excuse. The bill also seeks to plug the loophole arising from what the senators considered to be inadequate provisions in the 1999 Constitution about responsibility of the federal, state and local governments in health provision. If the senators' proposal is endorsed by their colleagues, the bill will seek to define limits of federal and state governments' responsibilities in matters relating to health. In the long run, such definition will eliminate wastage of scarce resources occasioned by overlap of health functions as is now the case.
Also commendable is the wide area which the proposed reform seeks to touch. From the bill, the areas, particularly those requiring Federal Government's attention includes international relations, code of practice for private, non-governmental and traditional medicine providers, establishment and management of teaching hospitals, standardisation and control of drugs safety and food supply, regulation of health professional bodies and formulation of national policy of health insurance, disease control and preventive services.
These are areas in which Nigerians are thrown daily into crises which only end up compounding their health problems and cause untimely deaths. Any attempt to seriously address them is welcome. We shudder to imagine however, that the areas enumerated are not dealt with firmly by existing laws and regulations on health. Even if what the senators hope to achieve by the proposed law is a clearer definition, and allocation of responsibility for those health targets, it remains laudable. We cannot aspire for too much improvement in the health delivery system.
In the case of public spending on foreign medical treatment, it is worrisome because of the huge depletion it constitutes on our foreign exchange and the abuse to which it has been subjected by top public servants. The abuse has become so flagrant that no public servant likes to go for admission or be seen to be admitted in Nigerian hospitals. Public servants forget that the country is indeed going through economic adversity for which it should be spared the additional pressure of abuse of its foreign exchange. In the past, there had been half-hearted efforts by government to discourage such frugal spending. The time has come to be more serious. The Senate should allow the bill to become law.
So far, the belief of top public servants is that they can get the best medical treatment abroad. Often, this is true. But such treatment does not come cheap. Where the money is coming from public coffers, the question necessarily is who benefits and against who As things stand, only a handful of privileged public functionaries benefit while the rest of the society lose because they are deprived of funds to develop health institutions around them. Huge funds are expanded on flights, feeding, accommodation of the subject and sometimes, of his dependants. The direct medical bill is usually huge, in the absence of health insurance cover for the Nigerian functionaries.
It is embarrassing. Governors, advisers, commissioners, state and federal legislators are guilty of the indiscretion. In the past, heads of state had travelled abroad on health grounds, yet they recommended the local health system for the rest of Nigerians. It is time the government tackled health issues more seriously. Hospitals deserve better facilities and infrastructure than is now available. We should do more to prevent endless strikes by hospital staff which further cripple the sector. The government should pay more than lip-service to health insurance. A lot more can be done to minimise death of the ordinary Nigerians from otherwise minor ailments.
The fancy for foreign medical treatment is yet another aspect of a wider malaise affecting this country. But it is a problem we can overcome by seriously harnessing our human and material capacity. Incidentally, some of these foreign hospitals are manned by highly skilful Nigerians. Why can't we attract them back home A situation where those in government, who are supposed to be serving, are enjoying advantage over and above the governed, creates a moral crisis which should be redressed now.
