By Septimus Senessie
The District Medical Official (DMO) attached to the Koidu Government Hospital in the Eastern district of Kono has described the hospital as a “ghost hospital among other hospitals in the country”.
Dr Francis Jayah said this during an exclusive interview with Politico in his primary health care office in Koidu Town.
He said they were operating at the hospital under difficult circumstances, lacking an X-Ray machine, a mortuary or even laboratory equipment. He said whenever they needed to carry out biochemist or X-Ray tests or preserve corpse they had to do so either in Makeni or Freetown.
Dr Jayah pointed out that all the buildings for those facilities were “ghost structures” with no equipment to make them function.
The DMO said the hygiene in the hospital was another challenge they were faced with, pointing to the “poor toilet facility”, the nearness of the kitchen to the incinerator, and the u”nequipped mortuary where decomposed bodies are kept”.
He lamented over the abandonment of rehabilitation work to the hospital and the long delay in the remittance of the first and second tranches of 2013 subvention to the government.
The district coordinator for Health for All Coalition, Philip Lansana alleged that drugs were perishing at both the district and the hospital drug stores because of lack of power supply. He said the cooling system at the drug stores had long worn out without any attempts to repair them. He described the poor hygiene condition of the hospital as “appalling and horrendous.”
Lansana called on those responsible to rise up and improve the situation at the hospital as‘’health is wealth.’’
