Medical tourism has been politicised – Ex-UK High Commissioner
Former Nigeria’s High Commissioner to the United Kingdom, UK, Sarafa Tunji Isola, has described the concept of medical tourism as non-existent and politicised.
Isola spoke on Saturday in Abeokuta, Ogun State, while responding to questions from newsmen on the sidelines of the 2025 Annual General Meeting and Scientific Conference of the Islamic Medical Association of Nigeria, IMAN, the state chapter.
The meeting has “The Training of Muslim Healthcare Professionals: Breaking Barriers, Building Bridges”, as the theme, and “Healing the Healers: Burn-out, Compassionate Practice and the Muslim Healthcare Workers”, as sub-theme.
The former envoy argued that the term medical tourism has become associated with the public officials on the account of accountability whereas private sector players or individuals are left out of the blame.
“If you have an ailment and there is a reference to anywhere in the world, as long as you can afford it or people can raise money for you, I don’t see that as medical tourism. In those days, we used to have people coming from Saudi Arabia for medical treatment at our own UCH in Ibadan. Do you call that medical tourism?. When you say medical tourism, people have policitised it,” Isola said.
He explained that medical expertise and varying technological advancements have made people resort to seeking treatment in different countries.
“What you call medical tourism is virtually a political thing and non-existent. You must appreciate the fact that in terms of technological development, it varies from country to country. So, if you have to go abroad for what we don’t have the expertise or the technology in Nigeria and you can afford it, I don’t see that as medical tourism”.
He, however, called on public officials to always pay more attention to the provision of healthcare facilities in Nigeria.
Delivering the keynote address, Prof Ibrahim Uthman, from the Department of Arabic and Islamic Studies, University of Ibadan, stressed the need for Muslim healthcare practitioners to advance and learn new inter healthcare skills, initiatives and ethics to enhance their knowledge about other healthcare experts, patients and as well upscale their capabilities.
He lamented that some challenges faced by Muslims in accessing healthcare services include “pervasive stigmatisation of Muslims, lack of competent Muslim healthcare experts, Islamophobia and called for continuous training to help understand and accommodate patients’ faith commitments.
In his remarks, the State Chairman/Amir of IMAN, Dr Ibrahim Opeewe, said the focus of the AGM was to address the welfare of the association’s members by featuring medical outreaches which involved free eye and dental screening, free glasses, medications among others.
Opeewe expressed that association’s readiness to partner individuals, institutions and groups in order to provide healthcare service to the residents of the state.