Plans are underway by the Organisation of Trade Unions of West Africa (OTUWA) to launch a regional campaign against political medical tourism in the sub-region.
The tagline ‘Our Leaders Must Use Our Hospitals’ was one of the fallouts of a research dissemination workshop organised by OTUWA with support from the Solidarity Centre.
The meeting, which brought together over 30 trade union leaders and activists from the West Africa region, noted how medical tourism disproportionately benefits elites while diverting resources that could strengthen local health systems, while health workers are demoralised by poor investment in domestic healthcare, leading to brain drain.
Trade unions therefore noted their critical role in demanding public investment in health, transparency and accountability and resolved to embark on the campaign.
In his opening remark, the Executive Secretary of OTUWA, John Odah, drew urgent attention to the deepening crisis posed by the unchecked rise of medical tourism in West Africa.
He said: “Medical tourism, as currently practised, is not merely a symptom of failing health systems, it is a direct contributor to the structural poverty and inequality that undermine our societies. When public officials and elites routinely bypass domestic health facilities in favour of treatment abroad, they abandon their responsibility to invest in and improve the healthcare services that ordinary citizens depend upon.”
He said the two-tiered system of health access is unjust and dangerous, adding that it entrenches inequality by ensuring that quality care remains a privilege for the few while the majority struggle with underfunded, overstretched local hospitals.
Odah maintained that the current practice creates a healthcare apartheid, one that contradicts the principles of social justice and equal opportunity that trade unions uphold.
“Moreover, the unchecked diversion of public resources, whether financial, administrative, or human capital, toward private overseas medical travel erodes trust in democratic governance. It signals a lack of accountability and widens the gap between elected leaders and the people they serve. Democracy cannot thrive when leaders do not rely on the same public services as their constituents,” Odah added.
He urged the labour trade movement in the sub-region to challenge the culture that normalises medical tourism among political and economic elites.
OTUWA called for immediate reforms that will lead to transparent health budgeting and public investment in domestic healthcare infrastructure, regulation and reporting of government-funded overseas medical travel and inclusive health policies that prioritise access and dignity for all citizens.
Odah insisted that healthcare is not a commodity reserved for the wealthy alone, but a fundamental human right, adding, “If we are to combat poverty, reduce inequality and preserve democracy in West Africa, we must end the double standard in healthcare and demand systems that serve the many, not just the few”.
The Solidarity Centre Country Programme Director for West Africa, Deddeh Tulay, who was represented by the Senior Programme Officer, Gabin Ralph, pledged the continuous support of the Centre to trade union campaigns on the health and democracy of the region.
