According to them, this is one of the surest ways to end huge capital flight and medical tourism suffered by Nigeria due to yearly overseas trips for improved medical care.

 

The Project Manager of HFH, Pauline Odeyemi, stated this in an interview with our correspondent at Garki Hospital, Abuja, where a team of 15 cardiologists, led by Dr. Segun Ajayi, were conducting free heart surgeries for indigent patients aged between eight months and nine years.

 

She said the free surgeries were in response to the current gap in the nation’s healthcare system and that the move became necessary to save the lives of the patients, whose parents could not afford the cost of heart surgery.

 

She said that heart surgery was a costly venture globally.

 

Odeyemi, who is a specialist in medical ICT in the United Kingdom, observed that majority of the people who trooped abroad for medical care did so mainly for specialist needs.

 

She said, “It is ironical that there is inadequate specialist heart doctors in the country, whereas Nigerian doctors form the bulk of best hands paraded in the same field in Europe and America.

 

“We are in Nigeria to give urgent surgical sessions to patients in dire need. People travel abroad for better healthcare services. The only challenge is that we don’t have a structured way of delivering the services. Many Nigerians want to come back to assist.

 

“The government owes its citizens a lot of responsibilities. Health is a right and it is the responsibility of government to deliver good healthcare services. In Cuba, they sponsored many of their doctors to the US. Today, they have the best healthcare services in the world.”

 

BY FRIDAY OLOKOR