Fashola Reiterates Commitment To Reduction Of Foreign   Medical Treatment

Lagos State Governor, Mr. Babatunde Fashola (SAN), has reiterated the commitment of his administration to reducing, to its barest minimum, the number of medical cases taken abroad from the state for treatment, saying the capital flight resulting from such foreign treatments was not good for the state. 

Governor Fashola, who spoke at the Lagos House, Alausa, when he met the Medical Mission from Ruby Hall, India, who are in the state to assist the local medical team to perform cardiac surgery in the state’s University Teaching Hospital (LASUTH), said his administration was also interested in developing a competitive exchange with India.

 Governor Fashola told the six-man Mission led by Dr. Sameer Ghotavadekar: ”Our objective is to reduce the amount of money we spend exporting patients to India for treatment. It is not good for our business. I want to keep that business in Lagos, I want to keep it for our doctors, I want to keep it for our nurses.”

 According to the governor, “one of the responsibilities of government is the obligation to prolong life, to make it worth living and we can only do this if we keep our people healthy; a healthy workforce, a healthy population is a very useful asset to any nation. 

“But as we deal the clinical end of cardiac issues, I think that we must remind ourselves that our work lies with the prevention areas of cardiac problems; continuing advocacy to our people about lifestyle choices about what they eat, what they drink, where they work, what they are exposed to.”

The governor added that the aforementioned are “the quick wins that I think that, as a government, as a people, we should continue to emphasise.”

 He said government started an advocacy programme for free screening for diabetes and hypertension “because a combination of those have been the two big risk factors for cardiac problems,” urging the leaders of the state’s health sector to continue that advocacy and treatment. 

Expressing joy that the government is now developing local capacity for the treatment of cardiac problems, Governor Fashola declared, “Many of the situations that you ultimately get to see, apart from the congenital issues,  are sometimes preventable if they are detected early enough.” 

Thanking the Mission “for the exchange of partnership” that has brought them to the state, Governor Fashola, who said the frontiers of medicine lie so far ahead, asserted, “I believe that as we improve and challenge you, you will remain also continuously on your toes because, don’t under-estimate us at all, we learn quickly. 

“But having said that, I think that this is a relationship that is not new; it is a relationship that existed in our country when I was a child. My science teachers in almost all the schools in Lagos were Indians. They taught Mathematics, Chemistry, Physics and Biology. So, we have only gone back to the old way to start together again.”

The governor expressed the hope that the benefits and mutuality of the relationship between the state and India would continue adding, “Even if we are not exporting patients to you, we can still do business because you can be providing local consultancy which will be rewarding.”

 Reiterating the need for preventive healthcare in the State’s Health Sector, Governor Fashola declared, “I think also when we look at the process of recovery treatment, we want to move our healthcare from the system that treats to the system that cares. That really is the healing component that I see. 

“When I see people travel overseas and they are right in the middle of strangers, I think they will heal better, they will heal quicker  if you didn’t change the food they were used to, if they saw relations around as they recovered after surgery in an environment that was theirs rather than in an environment where they were looking at total strangers.” 

Governor Fashola said leaders of the government should do everything possible to prolong life and make it meaningful and comfortable for the people, expressing the hope that with the collaboration between his government and India, more people would be kept alive and healthy in the state. 

Earlier, while introducing the LASUTH and Ruby Hall, India team , Chief Medical Director of LASUTH, Professor David Oke, said since the arrival of the Indian Mission, the team  has carried out three successful cardiac surgeries, one of which was on a two-year-old infant. He pointed out that it was the first of its kind in Nigeria. 

He commended the Lagos State Government for being the only state in the country that has been able to harness the zeal, the will and the resources to put together a team to carry out the surgery, adding that the government committed N35 million to the project. 

Thanking the governor for his interest in uplifting the health of Lagosians, Professor Oke said in the last six years, the LASUTH team has been able to conduct 21 cases, adding that while at a Cardiac Conference in Uganda recently, he was able to bring to the notice of the international community that Lagos is a centre for Cardiac Surgery and has a governor “who is willing and who is focused”. 

Among those present at the meeting were Leader of the LASUTH & Ruby Hall Team Mr. Bode Falase,  Dr. Ariyo Idowu, Dr. (Mrs.) A.A. Majekodunmi, Dr. Adeola Animashaun among others in the LASUTH team, while Mr. Manoj Durairaj, Mr. Rajendea Khnde, Mrs. Pruja Dackin Khaward among others constitute the Ruby Hall, Indian team.