A high-powered delegation from the Ministry of Health and Sanitation led by the Minister himself has paid an emergency spot visit to the Bo Government Hospital. The visit of the delegation comes in the wake of the seeming dysfunctionality at the Bo Government Hospital and the conspicuous absence of the Medical Superintendent whose conspicuous absence from work was made known on the SLBC Morning Coffee programme days ago.
In an Interview with Dr. Austin Demby, Minister of Health and Sanitation,he said the purpose of their visit was to understand the key issues facing the hospital coupled with their challenges and also to explore opportunities to make the regional hospital functional and fit for purpose.
Dr. Austin Demby disclosed that they have heard a lot of negative comments about the general hospital management and according to him they have been able to underscore in a joint meeting together with the visiting delegation, Bo Government Hospital Management, Bo DiCOVERC and the Resident Minister South, among others; internal problems, increasing deaths upon arrival, staffing, staffing compliments, poor records management , ill-equipped laboratory, lacks of drugs, complaints from patients having to pay for services they ought not to.
Giving his general assessment of their visit, the Minister of Health and Sanitation described the Bo Government Hospital as the nexus of the whole region where difficult cases are sent to from neighboring districts stressing that their visit is not a social visit but a serious business visit where immediate sanctions will be taken irrespective of the individual including the Medical Superintendent whose attitude to work is alleged to have stifled the operations of the whole hospital.
Resident Minister South, Hon. Mohamed E.K.Alie said frantic moves are being put in place to remedy the situation and to make the Bo Government functional again.
Bo DiCOVERC District Coordinator, David Fortune bemoaned the fact that the only Treatment centre for COVID patients in Bo is not functional owing to the fact that the container facility is bereft of sustainable electricity hence the need to rehabilitate the MSF hospital at Gondama to serve as a treatment Centre for all Covid Patients in Bo District.
He also narrated the lack of laboratory in Bo to conduct COVID test which according to him has been marred with potential dangers and embarrassment for travelers whose samples are sent to Kenema for analysis.
Efforts to contact Dr. Augustine Fomba, Medical Superintendent on allegations of his alleged conspicuous absence from work proved futile.
Accordingly, it is expected that an emergency solution towards the worsening and deplorable situation at the Bo Government Hospital will be made in a jiffy.
It could be recalled that a press release by the Public Relations Office of Bo DiCOVERC expressed ailing concerns about the increasing number of deaths in Bo District attributable to respiratory illnesses and data not captured to ascertain the cause(s) of death. A tour to assess the hospital facilities unearthed that the Bo Government Hospital has only one functional Oxygen Machine (Oxygen Concentrator) for the entire hospital, the remaining 8 oxygen machines had been damaged months ago and no efforts made to repair or replace them.
The Hospital management uses 1930 paper solution to solve a 20th century electronic solution resulting to loss of vital patient’s data, no M&E personnel, lots of volunteers with no pin codes doing the work of paid personnel, unkept beds often sandwiched with bedbugs and a general filth that characterized the entire compound.
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