By Prince Musa
The decision by the government to do away with volunteers in health facilities has caused an upset, leading local officials calling for a policy rethink.
Dr Mohamed Vandi, District Medical Officer of Kenema is the latest to raise concern over the controversial policy. Vandi told a stakeholders’ meeting in Kenema on October 12 that the absence of the volunteer nurses in hospitals and public health units had created serious gaps in the health sector.
Speaking during the District Health Management stakeholders’ meeting, he said that included Paramount Chiefs, councilors and other state actors that the decision taken by the Ministry of Health had had a mixture of positive and negative impact.
According to officials, the health ministry decided to dismiss volunteer nurses because they were found to have been involved in a number of things deemed unethics to the profession. They included allegations that they were involved in stealing of the free healthcare drugs, showing disrespect for and demanding extra charges from patients thereby sabotaging healthcare delivery efforts.
Vandi said despite these allegations, dismissing the nurses had created a major gap in the human resource base making it difficult for the running of health facilities.
These volunteer nurses, he noted, had been trained and exposed to their respective communities, which meant that their departure required fresh training for new recruits.
Paramount Chief Francis Kpakila Farma of Dodo drew the attention of the health authorities to the rise in Lassa Fever deaths in his chiefdom. He said urgent attention was needed to remedy the situation.
He lamented that the DHMT did not listen to the advice of Paramount Chiefs in terms of health situation in their chiefdoms and stressed that government could only succeed in the health care delivery if politics was removed from their engagements.Copyright (c) Politico 2016
