President Muhammadu Buhari has named the unfriendly attitude of health workers across Nigeria as a major reason why prominent Nigerians seek medical care outside the country.
The president, who was represented by the Ministry of Health, Dr Osagie Ehanire, said this at the official commissioning of an International Conference Centre and Telemedicine Hall and six other projects at the Federal Medical Center (FMC), Abeokuta, Ogun State.
“We still get all too often for comfort, disconcerting reports of not friendly attitudes of staff to patients, reports of unhygienic and housekeeping standards that leaves something to be desired even in the presence of sophisticated equipment and well qualified doctors.
“Such simple failings like this, are more frequently responsible for the loss of confidence of the end users in our health system than even the lack of equipment. They are the triggers for the distrust that will lead people to go on medical tourism.
“We have a lot of work to do in that area and I want to believe that the managers of our hospitals after such laudable, fantastic infrastructure investment we now begin to pay attention, not only to improving staff harmony and welfare, but to retraining health care givers for even better professionalism that deliver service in a productive and courteous atmosphere based on the lessons we learnt from our traditional African hospitality,” he said.
President Buhari also disclosed that his administration is currently embarking on the infrastructural development of all it’s tertiary hospitals so as to position them for quality health care delivery to the people.
He added that the National Health Insurance Scheme is awaiting a law that would make the scheme compulsory for every Nigerian.
“We are carrying on infrastructural development at all our tertiary hospitals to position them for quality health care delivery to all persons, the National Health Insurance Scheme is awaiting a new law to make health insurance mandatory,” Buhari said.