I have been in this capacity for four years and have served the Ministry of Health and Sanitation for 13 years.

Dr Moses Michael Kargbo, Medical Superintendent, Magburaka Government Hospital, Tonkolili

Health care delivery in Tonkolili is appreciable with some positive signs, which are being overshadowed by several constraints. For example, the main Government Hospital at Magburaka, which was vandalized and badly damaged during the war has since been rehabilitated and is running. A host of other public health units have either been rehabilitated and modernized or constructed.

The hospital administered by MOH staff is divided into three, namely outpatient, inpatient and surgical. MSF Holland has been very helpful especially in dealing with obstetric and general surgical emergencies. They even run a therapeutic feeding centre.

The cases most frequently reported and handled here include malaria, hepatitis B and C+, gastric problems, acute respiratory infection and obstetric emergencies.

It will interest you to know that yellow fever, measles and tetanus are now a thing of the past. This is mainly due to increase vaccination and high level sensitization and awareness raising campaigns among the local community especially those in remote and health-resource constrained settings.

With all sincerity, our public health units have never relented in placing premium on preventive health over curative health care. However, this does not mean that we do not pay serious attention to emergencies, but we prefer to nip them in the bud before they occur.  But we are faced with so many problems including gross inadequacy of professionally trained and qualified medical doctors whose number stand at four, the lack of medical consumables and transport in addition to poor communication links, which are seriously impacting timely service delivery.

We hope Government and other stakeholders will act promptly to enable us do more.