The House of Representatives Committee on Health Institutions, says it is working towards ensuring that the rate of foreign medical tourism by Nigerians is reduced.

The Chairman of the committee, Mr Amos Magaji, who led members of the committee disclosed this on Tuesday during an oversight visit to the Federal Teaching Hospital, Katsina.

According to him, the committee is doing its best to see that all the needed facilities, structures, workforce, and other necessary things are provided.

Magaji, representing Zango Kataf/Jaba Federal constituency of Kaduna State, said that the inspection of the health facilities was to know their conditions and ways to improve them for effective healthcare delivery in the state.

“One of the visions of the 10th National Assembly is to reduce medical tourism by ensuring that we reposition Nigeria’s healthcare sector.

“The aim is to make healthcare services affordable and accessible, especially in tertiary healthcare in Nigeria. In doing that, there are things we will address immediately and there are things we will address later.

“It is quite unfortunate that the government will spend a large amount on personnel costs of N14 billion, and you now have probably a capital project of N2 billion.

“If the government is spending N14 billion, we should be able to see maybe N20 billion for capital projects,” he said.

The chairman of the committee also called on the hospital management to always consider the federal character in their employment and appointment.

“We are also working to end any issues of the National Health Insurance (NHIS) decapitation,” he said.

He congratulated the hospital for its conversion from Federal Medical Centre to Teaching Hospital, hoping that it would not just change its nomenclature, but also translate into great transformation to fulfill its core mandates of training, research and providing services to the people of Katsina.

Earlier, the Chief Medical Director (CMD) of the hospital, Dr Suleiman Bello said the hospital had carried out several capital projects in the last five years.

According to Bello, they have modern equipment and we will train consultants and specialists for quality healthcare delivery.