The Federal Government through the Ministerial Committee on the Establishment of six World Class Hospitals and Diagnostic Centres in the six geo-political zones, has said there are 84 abandoned government hospitals.

It said the hospitals had not been completed because of lack of funds.

Chairman of the committee, which was inaugurated in 2012, Tony Elumelu, said this on Thursday after the committee’s meeting with President Goodluck Jonathan.

Elumelu said, “We updated the President on the journey so far‎. We took statistics of hospital projects in the country that have not been completed, and we came up with 84 hospital projects across the country. We shared this with Mr. President.

“Our intent is to see how this committee, working with his government can help to bring closure in terms of completion of these hospitals so that our people will stop traveling to India, South Africa and other places for medical attention and care.

“We believe that our people deserve good medical facilities, attention and care at this age and time.

He therefore called on the National Assembly to pass the National Health Insurance Scheme Bill in order to attract more private investments to the ‎health sector.

He said, “However, our committee believes that everyone should urge the National Assembly to help pass the NHIS bill into law as that will unlock a lot of opportunities in the health sector.

“That will provide the much needed effective demand of funding that will help the sector to take off. If our Senate and the House of Representatives do not pass the NHIS bill, we won’t achieve much.

“So, as our lawmakers go back to their constituencies to seek election mandate, we should ask them to please give us the National Health Bill and the NHIS Bill that will help us as a country make progress in this sphere.

“We can sit down and set up modern facilities, but if there is no money to make this sector attractive then it will collapse over time.”

Elumelu also assurance that the private sector was equal to the task of uplifting the Nigerian healthcare sector if the right policies were in place.

He added, “I like to observe and commend what the Minister of Agriculture has done, and that is what the Health Minister is also trying to do: to re-position the heath sector in Nigeria from being perceived as ‎a social service to one that is commercially viable sector to invest in just as what we have achieved in the agricultural transformation of this administration.

“The private sector is ready to invest in this sector, but because private sector is not a social service, we want all the enabling environment and initiative that will make it work to be in place”, he stressed.

The committee was set up in 2012 to facilitate the implementation of the objective of setting up six world standard health facilities in each of the six geo-political zones in the country‎.

The committee was expected to achieve its objectives by unlocking private sector investment in the health care sector in Nigeria.”

“Hopefully as we implement these recommendations, we urge also other government agencies that will play a role in implementing parts of the recommendations to help us make sure that this is done expeditiously,” he added.