Provide medical equipment to curb medical tourism, radiographers tell FG

The registrar, Radiographers Registration Board of Nigeria, Prof. Mark Okeji, has called on the Federal Government to increase the investment on radio diagnosis and provide radiography equipment to curb medical tourism. Speaking over the weekend in Abuja at the commemoration of the World Radiography Day, he said most people embarked on medical tourism because when […]

The registrar, Radiographers Registration Board of Nigeria, Prof. Mark Okeji, has called on the Federal Government to increase the investment on radio diagnosis and provide radiography equipment to curb medical tourism.

Speaking over the weekend in Abuja at the commemoration of the World Radiography Day, he said most people embarked on medical tourism because when they approached hospitals for diagnosis, there were no equipment to conduct the scan, hence they were forced to travel out of the country for diagnosis and treatment.

He said in the entire country, it was unfortunate that not up to three radiotherapy equipment were in good state, adding that those alone cannot serve the entire country.

Okeji said due to the alarming rate of cancer in the country, there is need to have radiotherapy machines in every hospital.

“We are willing as professionals to help government reach out to the rural areas and we have the requisite personnel to do that but the equipment are lacking which includes Ultrasound, CT scan, MRI scan and radiotherapy,” he said.

He also called on the radiographers to always abide by the ethics of the profession while carrying out their duties.

On his part, the chairman, Association of Radiographers in Nigeria, Federal Capital Territory branch, Emma Ngwu, said it was unfortunate that the average Nigerian citizen cannot afford MRI scan, CT scan, CATLAB, PET scan, or radiotherapy treatment which was not very good for the country’s growing populace.

He called on government to ensure that more CT scans and MRI scans were installed in every government hospital to allow competition within the industry with the aim to subsidize the cost of the investigations for average Nigerian students among others.