By Politico staff writer
President Julius Maada Bio has on Friday 22nd January 2021 Launched the Sierra Leone Health Village and also Turned Sod for the Construction of an Ultra-Modern General Hospital at Kerry Town.
Kerry Town, Western Rural District of Sierra Leone served as a major treatment center in the Western Area during the outbreak of the Ebola epidemic which claimed thousands of lives in the over a year stay in the country.
In his statement at the launch, the President said that he is informed that as per the MOU signed; EASI Trading Limited will build a 150-bed general Hospital that will provide such diagnostic imaging services such as Endoscopy, X-Ray, MRI and CT Scan.
“This project will also construct 40 flats for Doctors, 50 rooms for Nurses, a training facility for medical, nursing and other allied health professionals, and a 36-room building for people accompanying patients. At the same time, the project will create a minimum of 200 local jobs in the Kerry Town area,” he said.
He added that his development strives is in line with the New Direction Manifesto promise, which brought him to office and the Medium-Term National Development Plan to increase affordable access to quality healthcare service delivery.
He added that the goal also aligned with a central plank of their human capital development priorities; access to quality healthcare, and the Sustainable Development Goal 3 on delivering good health and well-being to Sierra Leoneans.
President Bio said his government had been able to continue to deliver increased care for other diseases even through the COVID-19 pandemic because of their well-considered and scalable investments in the healthcare system over the last two years
“We have recruited and trained nearly 6,000 additional healthcare workers, improved their conditions of service, and provided diagnostic laboratories in all district hospitals. The 2019 Demographic Health Survey (DHS) shows better health outcomes for Sierra Leoneans with a 39% reduction in maternal mortality and a 19% reduction in infant mortality. We may not be where we want to be, but we are determined to continue to give our best,” he assured.
Team Lead, Health and Education UK Foreign Commonwealth and Development Office, Penny Walker-Robertson, commended government leadership for making this a priority.
“We believe we will see much more progress in the coming years. The opening of this health village is an opportunity to reflect some reforms and how this Centre can contribute to the overall ambition for universal health coverage. We stand ready to partner with you,” she said.
Minister of Health and Sanitation, Prof. Alpha Tejan Wurie, said the health village was just a tip of the iceberg within the health sector, adding that the President had gone to tell the people about the provision of tertiary service.
“So, let us look at the services that we are going to get from this. Today, we send people out for pediatric service but more importantly for oncology service and also for cardiovascular service. We do hope that this facility will now have a reversal, in the sense that rather than Sierra Leoneans go out to access services, people will come into this country to access services,” he said.
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