ABUJA – The Medical and Health Workers Union of Nigeria (MHWUN) has vowed to resist any attempt by the federal government to privatise public hospitals across the country.

President of the union, Biobelemoye Josiah, made the vow on Thursday when members of the union visited the Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) camp in Durumi Abuja, to donate relief materials worth an estimated N2m.

Josiah, who stressed that it is the responsibility of the government to provide affordable healthcare services to the people, said: “What we are saying is that public health institutions are institutions of public good.

“These are institutions that are meant to provide healthcare for the down trodden, the poor and the vulnerable.

“But there is a conspiracy by capitalists to ensure that they take these health facilities  from the reach of the common man in the guise of privatization.

“We are not against a private man using his own money to build a health facility, equip it and keep it for the affluent, especially those who have looted our country and have made it big.

“They can establish these hospitals for them, but they should leave the public hospitals for the common man.

“Public Private Partnership (PPP) has failed in the health sector worldwide. There is no PPP that can make malaria treatment cheaper.

“Go to all the hospitals that PPP has been introduced in Nigeria, it has taken healthcare away from reach of the poor and the vulnerable.”

Speaking on the motive behind the visit to the IDPs, Josiah said: “We felt that we should impact on these very challenged people.

“They are not here because they wanted to be here. It is circumstances that brought them to this place and we felt coming, even if it is a cup of water we will share with them, it will help to reduce someone’s pains.

“Coming to see the situation as it is, I have directed the section that takes care of humanitarian activities to provide N100,000 monthly from now on to service this place.

“This is because they are our neighbours and we cant just watch them suffer.  God forbid, if a child dies here, it is a loss to Nigeria.”