By Kemo Cham
The health sector in the Sierra Leone capital, Freetown, suffers gross neglect and abuse of patients seeking healthcare with even the dead not spared, says a new report by a local organisation Campaign for Human Rights and Development International (CHRDI).
The damning report released over the weekend says health centres and hospitals, especially in government-run facilities, habitually demand bribes before attending to patients.
Patients who resist such demands are sent back home without treatment.
It says the problems in hospitals “range from inadequate policy monitoring, mistreatment of patients, shortage of drugs and medical supplies in public health institutions, poorly equipped health centres, lack of labs, lack of modern medical equipment, scattered storage facilities for drugs, to proliferation of poorly constructed health centres with no water facilities”.
The report makes the highly-trumpeted Free Healthcare Initiative for pregnant women, breast-feeding mothers and children under five years old, look like a farce. It says drugs procured have either expired or are close to expiring, and highlights “poor work ethics” among health workers.
Health officials, especially in government-run facilities, inflict more pain on patients than their illnesses cause, the authors write.
Other highlights of the findings include poor accountability mechanism at hospitals and conflict of interest among doctors and other senior health staff, which cause a delay in service-delivery.
"We in the Campaign for Human Rights and Development International have discovered that the failure in service provision, implementation of misguided health policies, plans and projects, and above all corruption, have had a devastating impact on the health care sector in Freetown," the report notes.
It adds: "We are also aware that even with these limited resources, the problems are further compounded by rampant corruption, impending access to quality, equitable and effective health services."
The investigation was carried out in about a dozen health facilities in Freetown, including the main referral Connaught and PCMH hospitals, as well as the Rokupa Government Hospital and Macaulley Street Hospital.
The report’s authors claim they were denied access to the 34 Military Hospital, Kingtom Police Hospital, and the surgical hospital run by the Italian NGO, Emergency.
The report however observes there has been “some improvement” in the Emergency and Accidents Unit at Connaught through the help of the British charitable Kings Sierra Leone Partnership, but says dead bodies at the mortuary have “surpassed freezing point” and are laid on the bare floor due to the lack of space.
Poor and frequent electricity outages at the Intensive Care Unit put lives at stake, and nearly half of the 1,200 staff are volunteers.
The CHRDI investigation also revealed, among others, insufficient bedding at the post natal ward forcing pregnant women and breast-feeding mothers to sleep side-by-side.
Botched Caesarean operations have also helped fuel the high infant mortality in the hospital, accordingly to the report which also found out that there were only two gynaecologists in the whole hospital.
This report comes less than two weeks after a warning by President Ernest Bai Koroma warned the leadership of the health ministry over service-delivery. That followed an apparently covert operation carried out in some health facilities.
Health Minister, Dr Abubakarr Fofanah appealed for a change of attitude among health workers in response to the president's expression of concern.
Hours after the presidential revelations, the bizarre news of the theft of a newly born baby at the PCMH emerged. That incident has since been resolved after the alleged culprits were apprehended with the help of CCTV footage.
But according to the CHRDI report, baby theft has become a common phenomenon at the country's major maternity hospital. It says of a total of eight baby theft cases reported only three have been resolved, with two still in court.
Sierra Leone is struggling to rebuild one of the world's poorest health care systems after the 2014 West African Ebola epidemic reduced it to its knees.
There has yet been no official government reaction to the CHRDI report.
See full CHRDI Press Release here: http://politicosl.com/articles/report-devastating-impact-service-failure...
(C) Politico 2016
