Overseas treatment: Patronise local hospitals, PDP tells Buhari

The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has told President Muhammadu Buhari to live by example by patronising local medical facilities for his checkups and medical treatment rather than going abroad.

This followed the admonition by the president that Nigerians cannot continue to go abroad for treatment.

In a statement issued in Abuja on Sunday by Kola Ologbondiyan, the party’s National Publicity, the PDP described Buhari’s comment as self-indicting as “it raises public apprehensions on high-level deceits in governance.”

Noting that the president “leads on the medal table” in the resort to medical treatment abroad. The main opposition party described as “ridiculous, a situation where a President, who patronises foreign hospitals for treatment and even check-ups; whose administration has failed to provide adequate healthcare in his country, could turn around to pontificate to other citizens against foreign treatment.”

It said while it did not approve of proliferated foreign medical tourism, especially by leaders and public office holders, it, however, believed that “a leader who has failed to lead by example and whose government has neglected and wrecked our healthcare systems, lacks all rectitude to issue directives against foreign treatment.”

The statement added: “Consequently, the PDP urges President Buhari to show an example by patronising a Nigerian public hospital on his next medical appointment so that he can experience the healthcare reality that our citizens have been subjected to under his government.

“Mr President can then discover that our health system has suffered untold neglect under his watch, leading to dilapidated infrastructure, empty drug shelves, decrepit and worn-out equipment, brain drain and a demoralised workforce worse than his 1983 recollections.

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“It is even more disheartening that all the investments and robust programmes of successive PDP administration, including the comprehensive National Strategic Health Development Plan, Saving One Million Lives Initiatives, National Health Insurance Scheme, among others, have been degraded and impaired by the dysfunctional APC administration.

“Nigerians recall that under the PDP administration, new technologies and modern medical equipment were available in most federal medical institutions where cases such as cancer, kidney, heart and brain ailments for which Nigerians are now mostly seeking overseas treatment were effectively handled in our country.

“Our health care would have continued to flourish but for the disruption of PDP’s people-based healthcare programs by the Buhari-led APC administration.”

The PDP alleged that National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) has now become the Automated Teller Machine (ATM) of the corrupt cabal in the Buhari Presidency, which it said has not been able to account for the looting of billions of naira saved for healthcare needs of Nigerians.

The PDP further stated: “Under the PDP administration, the dreaded Ebola outbreak was managed without grave consequences.

“If such a medical emergency, God forbid, breaks out today, it would be devastating to our nation given the poor handling of our healthcare system by the APC administration.

“The APC administration’s neglect for our national health need is reflected in successive budgetary allocations under President Buhari.

“Even in the 2020 budget, only N427.3bn (4.5% of the budget) is provided for the health need of over 186 million Nigerians. Indeed, this is not the way to go.”

The PDP, therefore, charged President Buhari to end his rhetoric by taking concrete steps to improve on the nation’s healthcare system so that Nigerians can have access to adequate and affordable healthcare at all levels.