By Mathew Kanu
A high profile delegation from the United States of America was in Sierra Leone over the weekend to inspect the facilities available for the new paramedical school in Makeni.
Head of the team, a New York-based medical doctor, Julius Garvey said they were here to support the initiative of the Ministry of Health and the Bombali District Council to establish a paramedical school that would develop the healthcare delivery workforce in the northern district.
He said Africa was far behind the rest of the world in terms of healthcare service delivery, adding that to catch up they needed to introduce modules for cost effective short term and medium term courses.
“Many of the jobs that are needed in the medical field don’t need to be carried out by doctors who require eight or nine years’ training in the medical schools” he said, adding that what was needed was a middle man power“for many other medical fields and to increase the number of health care workers”.
Dr. Garvey said Malawi and Mozambique were far ahead and that in Sierra Leone, for a start, the paramedical school would have health workers that would deal with emergencies and benefit a large number of people in the rural areas.
Minister of Health, Miatta Kargbo said that the country needed top level professionals and medical clinical officers who would be able to take care of minor illnesses that killed people in the villages across the country.
“This is what the school is all about. All our partners here are very interested in this. The work for the rehabilitation will be done in two weeks before it is officially opened. Soon they will be dealing with both medical and minor surgical issues,” she said.
“This will be the beginning of transforming the health sector in the country. The admission process will be very stiff and will be for mostly students in rural areas” she assured, adding “The Masanga Hospital, the Magburaka government hospital and Makeni referral government hospitals have been identified as practical centers for the students”.
UNFPA country representative, Dr. Bannet Ndyanabangi said they were supporting the initiative from the perspective of getting enough human resource in the health sector and to be able to provide services to save women’s lives.
“This school is one of the approaches we are looking at to strengthen health systems in Sierra Leone. The next approach is looking at building a cadre of health workers from the new paramedical school who can do surgical interventions” he said, assuring that “as long as the paramedical school is the cause of saving women’s life, UNFPA is always ready to support it interventions”.
Chairman of Bombali District Council, John Shangai Koroma, said the Marcus Garvey Paramedical School was a dream-come-true for the council.
“We need to collaborate and establish partnership with the Ministry of Health and other partners in the health sectors to ensure that the target date for opening the school is met,” Koroma urged.
© Politico 17/10/13
