After reading this story, I concluded that the woman in question displayed an act of ingratitude and took advantage of an otherwise benevolent health system. It is akin to biting the proverbial hand that fed you. Moreso, she not only probably puts pregnant Nigerian women travelling to the UK in the spotlight, she might as well forget travelling there in a long time to come except ofcourse, she pays up the bill she allegedly incurred.
Although Nigeria offers free maternity treatment, the quality of the care is very poor and there is a high mortality rate. According to recent statistics, Nigerian women have a one in 13 chance of dying during pregnancy or childbirth.
So, perhaps that was what informed this woman’s choice of travelling 3,200 miles from Lagos to Manchester to have her baby in Britain. Two midwives, two urology consultants, a radiology consultant, two obstetric consultants and two anaesthetists attended her in the delivery room before her healthy baby was born by emergency Caesarean section on Wednesday of last week and before she was discharged on Monday, hospital staff sought billing details for the woman and told her the cost of the treatment was around £10,000. However, she is not thought to have paid anything.
In a reaction Last night, MPs called for an inquiry and accused the unnamed woman of ‘effectively stealing’ from the British taxpayer. Graham Stringer, Labour MP for the Manchester seat of Blackley and Broughton, added: ‘This is simply a foreigner choosing to effectively steal off the NHS and the Government should use whatever powers it has to get the money back.’
Do you think the woman did a good thing considering the fact that this latest development casts otherwise good intentioned Nigerians in bad light and portrays us as untrustworthy?
But why na? Why for the Whole of Heaven sake? After all the perfect treatment a pregnant woman can ever have courtesy of that hospital with their team of specialilst? But why not considering the fact that her child is now a citizen of that famous country/continent? Why have she chosen to add more salt to the sore Nigeria now have Globally? I pray that country deals with her as deemed fit.