The Minister of Health, Prof Onyebuchi Chukwu, Tuesday
declared that the nation's health sector had witnessed
unprecedented improvement under President Goodluck
Jonathan's administration, insisting that some Nigerians
who still travel abroad for medical attention may well be
doing that for the fun of it.
This is coming even as the minister disclosed that the
federal government was making efforts to get more
hospitals from across the six zones of the country to
resume open heart surgeries in order to reduce the
pressures facing the University of Nigeria Teaching
Hospital (UNTH) and the University College Hospital,
Ibadan that are both carrying out the exercise at present.
Speaking when he paid a condolence visit to the family of
the late former Minister of State for Health, Dr. silas Ilo, at
their family house in Enugu, Chukwu noted that it would be
difficult to stop anybody from travelling abroad for medical
attention.
"You can't stop anybody from travelling out. Even a sick
person is entitled to medical tourism. In this case, the
former minister did not go for medical attention.
He did not die in a hospital but he merely went for a visit
with his wife and suddenly died. It was a sudden death;
nobody expected it; the wife didn't expect it, even the late
Ilo didn't expect. You can die anywhere even in the moon,"
he said.
While commiserating with the family over the painful loss,
the minister pledged the readiness of the ministry to always
assist the family of the deceased in order to reciprocate the
late ex-minister's contributions to the development of the
health sector in particular and the nation at large.
The minister who also used the opportunity to commend
the authority of the UNTH for successfully carrying out over
40 open heart surgeries since the resumption of the
programme earlier in the year, expressed hope that more of
such operations would be done at the hospital.
He said the ministry was currently making efforts to get
more hospitals to do the high-end surgical procedure
which is one of the main reasons for the establishment of
teaching hospitals in the country.
He however thanked some Nigerian in the Diaspora for
initiating the action that culminated in the resumption of
Open Heart Surgery in UNTH.
"This is part of the transformation agenda of President
Goodluck Jonathan who has been monitoring what has
been happening at our hospitals. He's pleased with what
we are doing in the health sector, though a little more
needs to be done. There's no doubt that this is one of the
best administrations in this country," he said.
Earlier, one of the children of the deceased former minister
had thanked Chukwu for remembering them at the moment
of grief, expressing appreciation that the minister had kept
in touch with the family since the demise of their father.
http://www.thisdaylive.com/articles/health-minister-more-hospitals-to-begin-open-heart-surgeries/167327/