The Minister of Health, Prof. Isaac Adewole, has revealed the President Muhammadu Buhari might have traveled for medical attention abroad on the advice of his doctor.
Adewole said it is only Buhari’s medical team that can truly say why he had to be treated in a foreign hospital. The minister said this on Monday in an interview with journalists on the sidelines of the inauguration of Central Pharmacy Store and Maternity Building at the Obafemi Awolowo University Teaching Hospital Complex, Ile Ife.
He said the President might have travelled as a matter of choice or on the advice of his doctors.
He said, ”I won’t describe it as a large volume but we still have people travelling abroad. One, it is a matter of choice and secondly, there is what is called bonding between a doctor and his patient irrespective of where the doctor is and that creates a problem, the patient may not want to see a new doctor.
”If a patient is seeing a particular doctor and that doctor is not around he may likely wait. You don’t want to be examined by a new doctor, you don’t want to start all over again. It is one of the reasons and you can’t take it away.”
Asked if that was the reason the President travelled abroad for treatment, the minister said Buhari and his doctors were the ones, who could answer the question.
Adewole said, ”The President is the best person to speak on this, he is our leader but also a private citizen. He is entitled to making a choice which will be influenced largely by the advice of his doctor.”
The minister commended the management and staff of the OAUTHC for doing what he described as wonderful job but he said their feats were largely under reported.
