BY IBRAHIM JOENAL SESAY
232NEWS, FREETOWN
A government report on Performance Audit in Sierra Leone Health Sector has revealed that the country suffers from extreme shortage of trained healthcare providers.
The report continued that there are only two clinical health workers per 10,000 people.
“Almost 64% of skilled health workers’ posts are currently vacant. About half of the total nurse workforce in the country are volunteers and not on the government payroll,” the report added
That interviews with key personnel in facilities visited and documents reviewed such as status reports and manpower plan confirmed the shortage of healthcare personnel including doctors and nurses to match up with the huge turnout in the hospitals.
The report revealed that other support staff such as drivers, potters, cleaners were also grossly inadequate in the hospitals.
That other disclosures from interviews with medical superintendents of various hospitals indicate that there were not enough medical personnel and support staff, and that most of the staff were not pin-coded, and some of the pin-coded staff were enrolled in various higher learning institutions to improve their skills.
“This was also confirmed during review of status report submitted by the Psychiatric Teaching Hospital, and the regional hospitals in Bo, Kenema and Makeni,” the report revealed.
The report concluded that the limited number of medical personnel at the hospital facilities will adversely affect the quality of healthcare services provided and that the limitation has also led to the deployment of personnel that is disproportionate to the population.
