By Bockarie Allieu
FREETOWN, Apr. 20 (SALONE TIMES) – Details of Bio’s terrible record on health in Sierra Leone have been exposed in several reports including the recent audit report.
According to the Audit Report, out of 1,102 patients admitted at the Maternity Ward in 2019, it was observed that 619 (56%) of the patients had normal delivery, 412 (37%) patients delivered by caesarean section and 71 (7%) had assisted delivery.
“There were insufficient bed spaces in the Maternity Ward. A review of the monitoring and evaluation data revealed that the Maternity Ward had 36 beds with an average admission of 127,” the report revealed
It was recommended that the Medical Superintendent should collaborate with other stakeholders and the Ministry of Health and Sanitation to put measures in place to improve antenatal facilities and support that will drastically reduce the number of caesarean section delivery at the Hospital.
That the Medical Superintendent should request from the Ministry and Central Medical Stores for additional beds to accommodate more patients.
The Medical superintendent stated that the recommendation to collaborate with other stakeholders to reduce the number of caesarean sections is well noted and that it should also be noted that the District Hospital is a referral hospital and as such, the vast majority of referred obstetric cases are emergencies are likely to receive emergency care, the most common being a caesarean section.
The Medical Superintendent also stated that the issue of bed space is that which Management has little control over as the catchment population covered by the facility grows annually and so does the demand for care and ultimately bed space, noting that the Ministry of Health and Sanitation through the Directorate of Hospitals and Ambulance Services sent a memo to all medical superintendents on it plan for the rehabilitation and possible extension of district hospitals which have been follow up by survey of the hospital.
