Dogara condemns high rate of foreign medical trips by Nigerians

The Speaker while speaking at a public hearing organised by the House Committee on Health on two bills at the National Assembly on Wednesday, April 24, 2019, said that the brain drain in the health sector was becoming worrisome.

He maintained that the health sector needs a total overhaul to guarantee efficient and effective delivery.

According to Punch, the two bills under consideration were a Bill for an Act to Repeal the Health Records Officers (Registration, etc) Act, CAP. H2 of the Laws of the Federation of Nigeria, 2004 and Re-Enact the Health Information Practitioners Council of Nigeria for effective and efficient Health Information Management, to Regulate the Training, Practice and Management of Health Information System in Nigeria; and Bill for an Act to Amend the Institute of Chartered Chemists of Nigeria Act, CAP 1.112, Laws of the Federation of Nigeria, 2004, to Provide for the Role of the Chemist, the Regulation of Practicing Fees by Members of the Institute; and for Other Related Matters.

Dogara said “The ultimate aim of these legislations is to ensure that we have a more efficient service delivery in the health sector. There is a compelling need for us to overhaul our health sector in view of the continuous public outcry against our defective health care delivery.

“The high number of Nigerians who go on foreign medical trips and the brain drain that we witness among our professionals in the sector, are indications that our health sector requires a serious surgical operation.”

However, where the Speaker of the House of Representative lamented about brain drain of medical doctors in Nigeria, the Minister of Labour and Employment, Dr Chris Ngige said he’s not concerned that doctors are fleeing abroad and that there are more benefits for the country instead.

The minister while speaking during an interview on Channels TV’s Sunrise Daily on Wednesday, April 24, said Nigeria can afford to export doctors abroad because the country has more than enough to fill the vacuum created.