“You cannot constrain people,” FG justifies leaders? overseas medical trips

The Federal Government has defended foreign medical trips by political leaders.

The Minister of Health and Social Welfare Muhammad Pate appeared on Friday’s edition of Channels Television’s Politics Today. 

Speaking on the show, Pate said: “Don’t conflate the quality of our healthcare system and what it has to offer and the choices that individuals can make for various reasons. Some may choose because they’ve got a provider, or they have other things.

“Tourism is something that everybody has a right to choose wherever he wants to go and you cannot constrain people. We are not in a communist system where you say, ‘Everybody has to be treated here’.”

Pate insisted that “Everyone, whether rich or poor, whether powerful or weak, has the right to the privacy of their medical records.

“From medical ethics, the patient is king and the patient has the right to his or her privacy.”

Nigerian leaders have faced criticisms for going abroad to seek medical care. Critics say this is an indictment on the country’s health sector.