Pate defends medical tourism, says individuals free to choose

The Coordinating Minister for Health and Social Welfare, Mohammed Ali Pate, has said that Nigerians cannot be constrained to seek medical care in the country.

Pate added that the elite had the right to choose where to go on medical tourism.

The minister stated this when he appeared as a guest on Channels Television Politics Today programme on Friday evening.

Pate argued that the country did not operate a communist system of government, which would constrain the choices of individuals, noting that other African leaders sought medical care in Nigeria.

He noted that the country had “well designed, well structured, properly equipped”, health facilities in Nigeria, but that some had built the narrative that the healthcare system didn’t work.

“The narrative easily gets built that we don’t have anything here, as if we want to lose respect for ourselves. If I tell you there are other senior leaders from other African countries coming here for medical care, would you believe that?

“Don’t conflict with the quality of our healthcare and what it has to offer and the choices that individuals are allowed to make for various reasons. Tourism is something that everybody has a right to choose wherever they want to go. You cannot constrain people, we are not in a communist system where you say ‘Oh everybody has to be tied’.

“I think there are facilities that are well designed, well structured, properly equipped, and that they have health workers, professionals, doctors, surgeons, pharmacists, nurses, that are working very hard to provide those services. Oftentimes people make choices, but other times people build on the narratives that nothing works or nothing is good in Nigeria,” he said.

Asked whether the State House clinic was enough to address the healthcare needs of the country’s leaders, Pate responded “I think it is”, adding, however, that the focus should be on the Nigerian population that suffered inequality in access to healthcare services.