By Mabinty M. Kamara
The Ministry of Health and Sanitation through the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Corporation has on Monday 12th April 2021 received medical equipment from the Islamic Development Bank through the King Abdullah Bin Abdul-Aziz Program (KAAP).
The equipment according to officials is to help boost the fight against the coronavirus disease and as well serve other medical services in Sierra Leone beyond COVID.
Presenting the items to the Minister of Health and Sanitation at his Youyi building office in Freetown, Alpha Umaru Jalloh, lead person for the Integrated Project Administration at the Ministry of Health and Sanitation said the support is an extension of a project that was supporting the Ebola Virus disease but that with the end of the EVD, and the outbreak of coronavirus in the country, they negotiated with the funders to transfer portion of the funds for COVID Support to the Ministry through COVID equipment which they agreed to.
He added that the Ministry by then had highlighted a list of equipment needed which is what was presented to them.
Resuscitation bag and mask, compressor device, silicon, adult blood pressure machine, pediatric blood pressure machine, neonatal blood pressure machine, cardiac bedside standing, and digital mercury oxygen concentrator were among the items presented.
In his statement, the Minister of Health and Sanitation, Dr. Austin Demby applauded the funders for the support, noting that the equipment supplied are not just essential during the time of Covid, but that they are going to be of immense use to the health sector generally.
“They are critical kits for healthcare and the joy of it is that they are not just for adults but for children as well. We want to be grateful and assure the program that we are going to utilize these products you can see that there are large portion of these products that have been made available to us and by extension the people of Sierra Leone. These oxygen concentrators are very important bed side devices and it’s good to see that there are pediatric component to it,” he said.
He added: “They are going to be very helpful for covid-19 but also they are going to be helpful for patient health in general so we really want to thank you for the gift and we assure you that we going to use it appropriately and we assure you that in few weeks, if you go to the hospitals, you will see them fully utilized. They are not going to sit in the warehouses we are going to push it.”
Copyright © 2021 Politico Online 14/03/21
