By Mohamed Jaward Nyallay
A new installment of the Afro Barometer report, which was launched on Tuesday, has shown that bribery has increased in the health sector over the last two years. Some 53% of the people sampled said they have paid bribe to access health care at least once in the last year.
The rate of bribery to access medical services is among the highest at 53%, second only to bribery for Police assistance, which stands at 55%.
The figure gives an insight into the cause for the country’s fragile health care system.
In 2018, 50% of people said they had paid bribe to access medical services. The new report has shown a 3% increase.
Data for the report was gathered in March this year by Afrobarometer’s local partner, Institute for Governance Reform (IGR). IGR said they used a sample size of 1,200 people to conduct the survey.
Sierra Leone has for decades underspent on the country’s health sector. This year the country budgeted just over 10% for the sector, five percent below the 15% agreed in the Abuja Declaration.
As a result the country health sector has been left reeling in the wake of outbreaks like Cholera, Ebola and now Corona virus.
Health sector workers in the country have been accused of selling free health care drugs and also selling access to speedy treatment, especially in government hospitals.
Executive Director of IGR, Andrew Lavalie, said this latest data set goes beyond perception.
“This is not just about perception, this data is important because it is about the experience of corruption. It is about whether you have paid bribe to access a public service or not,” Lavalie said.
Speaking about the significance of the report, Lavalie said: “The goal of Afrobarometer is to aggregate the voice of citizens and bring it to policy making by providing high quality data.”
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