SYLVIA BLYDEN DOT COM, the ICT and Website Consultants to Sierra Leone’s Ministry of Health & Sanitation conducted a nationwide, district by district information collation and analysis of the state of Health Services in the various districts of Sierra Leone.
In Kono, Abdul Kuyateh (B.A. Hons in Mass Communication), one of our Senior IEC Officers spent over one week traveling all over various chiefdoms in the district looking at the health status of the people of Kono. The following is an interview with
Momodu Sesay, District Medical Officer, Koidu Government Hospital, Kono District
I started work in Koidu Town, Kono District four years ago.When I took over, the state of the health care delivery system was rather deplorable. Thus, the primary objective of Government was to revamp the dilapidated health care services in the district.
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| Momodu Sesay, District Medical Officer, Koidu Government Hospital, Kono District |
We set up the District Health Management Team (DHMT), and in tandem with donor partners (World Vision, MERLIN and International Committee of the Red Cross), supported by the Ministry of Health and Sanitation, we kick- started the process of revitalizing health services in the District.
This entails the rehabilitation and construction of Primary Health Care Units in all the fourteen chiefdoms of the District.
From a dismal figure of 28 PHUs before the war, which were in turn destroyed in the fighting, Kono District can now boast of 67 PHUs, with five constructed by NaCSA, awaiting official opening and handing over to the communities.
There are at least five PHUs in each Chiefdom, and this has immensely enhanced accessibility, which has hitherto been a major obstacle.
We also have the 100 days Rapid Result Initiative (RRI) which finished last May, geared towards improving access as well as coverage of basic health care services.
Each PHU is staffed with a Nurse-in-Charge, a Maternal Health Nurse, a Vaccinator and a varying number of Traditional Birth Attendants (TBAs), who deliver essential health services to the communities.
This has drastically cut down on the constraints of having to travel long distances to the Government referral hospital at Koidu Town.
With the support of USAID solicited by the Ministry of Health and Sanitation in its zest to ensuring effective health delivery services in the District, the only referral hospital was being rehabilitated. This entails the reconstruction of a theater, mortuary, X-Ray facility, annex and overhauling the electrical and water systems.
Since the end of the war, UNICEF has been working with the DHMT in implementing the Child Survival support programme, which aims at providing immediate access to health care to an ailing child.
On the whole, there is a marked improvement in our coverages of basic health care services as of 2005 as follows:
Measles 68%; DPT3 73%; Fully Immunised 60%; Tetanus Immunization of pregnant women 74%; Vitamin A for U-5 45%; Prevalence of Malaria from 36% to 28%; ANC attendance 77%; Malaria Prophylaxis for pregnant women 43.5%; ITN for vulnerable groups 32%.
But underneath these monumental strides, are teething constraints, which include, the late supply of drugs and other medical consumables; inadequate staff and low moral among the few staff and the lack of an Ana esthetician, to name a few.
