The distraught mother, in an online publication, said her daughter allegedly ‘died due to carelessness of some doctors at Fortis hospital Delhi.’ The bereaved mother who made the allegation, while lamenting about the tragic loss of her daughter after the operation accused ‘the hospital of negligence and recklessness.’
The story, which went viral on several social media sites, has continued to elicit public fury.
Undoubtedly, the weighty allegations and circumstances surrounding the inexplicable death of Citizen Chinenye are reflective of Nigeria’s appalling health sec- tor, which has forced many citizens into a new and growing medical tourism abroad.
Obviously, medical tourism which has continued to boom over the last two decades, constitutes a huge drain to this country and its citizens, on several fronts. In the main, most foreign medical services are very expensive and accompanied with inherent dangers.
In some cases, hapless Nigerians fall into the hands of dubious foreign medical practitioners and their Nigerian allies. Media reports are awash with stories of nebulous activities of these foreign hospitals, greedy agents and the Nigerian cartel.
Presently, thousands of Nigerians are referred to various hospitals abroad, by Nigerian doctors for major and chronic ailments, reportedly due to personal gain and other sundry reasons. The millions of dollars spent on these spurious medical arrangements is unimaginable.
Indeed, the overall impact of this exercise on the Nigerian economy, due to the concomitant effect of capital flight, is huge. The situation is made worse, due to increasing incidences of non-communicable dis- eases, including organ-related diseases, such as heart problems, kidney, liver, bone, spinal cord, and genetic diseases.
With the abysmal failure of the nation’s health sector, desperate Nigerians plunge into the waiting hands of hospitals, particularly in India and China. The result can only be imagined than experienced.
Without doubt, many hospitals across lndia, China, Egypt, Dubai and of course Eu- rope and America offer excellent medical services and care, far beyond what is obtain- able in Nigeria.
Many Nigerians attest to this fact. How- ever, Nigeria cannot continue to travel this route. Apart from being import-dependent, this country is also beleaguered by brain- drain, educational decline and economic woes. Over 70 percent of Nigerian citizens are poor, according to the United Nations (UN) data, hence cannot afford medical services. As a result of this, only the rich and their accolytes can afford standard medical care in the country. In some cases they take advantage of their privileged positions to obtain medical treatments abroad, largely at public expense, as national resources and funds are often plundered and diverted to private pockets.
Today most government hospitals across the country are grossly ill-equipped, even as many of them lack experts to man hi- tech medical equipment. Sadly, private hospitals offer little or no panacea as their charges are too prohibitive for the common man to afford. Meanwhile, most super-speciality hospitals in India, Brazil and other developed countries boast of robotic machines, laparascopic equipment and CT scanners for various specialist medical surgeries and procedures.
The story is different in Nigeria, as inadequate funding for training, research and monitoring, as well as labour issues, unfavourable conditions of service and related is- sues culminate in hampering excellence in the nation’s health sector.
But most importantly, inadequte medical expertise and allied professionals as well as paucity of funds, lack of modern technology and poor power supply have been cited as major factors affecting the sector and invariably driving the medical tourism business.
Despite the country’s abundant resources, decades of bad governance have bequeathed a decrepit health system to its citizenry. As a result of this, Nigeria can hardly boast of affordable modern hospitals, comparable with what is obtainable in nearby Egypt or even lndia. Our so-called leaders, or perhaps, rulers, not only plunder the nation’s commonwealth, but scuttle budgeted infra- structural projects, developmental services, and socio-economic advances.
Over the years, this crop of military and democratic rulers, also entrenched a culture of impunity and corruption in the nation’s public sphere, placing little or no premium on lives of citizens. The onus lies on the cur- rent administration to rise above parochial, political and tribal idiocyncracies to revive the nation’s comatose health sector and the public service in general.
The masses also have a civic responsibility to place a demand on leadership at all levels to ensure transparency, accountability and meritocracy in governance. Without this, Nigerians would continue to die like citizen Chinenye in foreign lands. Certainly, Citizen Chinenye’s demise is one death too many. And this trend must stop. Undoubtedly, Nigerians deserve a better deal.
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