Andrew T. Muana, Medical Superintendent, Government Hospital, Bo

I am a Member of the Hospital Board and also the head of administration, accountable to the Director of Hospitals and Laboratories in the person of the Director General of Medical Services. I represent the hospital administration on the Hospital Management Committee.

  

Andrew T. Muana, Medical Superintendent, Government Hospital, Bo

The health care delivery systems which are being decentralized countrywide are very good. The situation in and around Bo is very fair.

A lot of health sector developments programmes have been taken place within Bo district. All of the health care delivery infrastructures including clinics that were damaged during the war have been rehabilitated and new ones constructed.  The main Government Hospital in Bo town, which has a four-hundred-and-fifty bed capacity, is serving as a district, regional as well as a referral centre. It is serving as referral centre for seven refugee camps for Liberians including 3 in Bo. It comprises nine wards and an outpatient department, comprising an overall work force of 238 staff.

The hospital was built in 1940 with mud bricks. A new Outpatient/Emergency Department, funded by the Standard Chartered Bank Ltd and scheduled to be completed in July 2006, is at its concluding stages. The construction work is being done by Skaitum Construction Company of 9 Dambala Road, Bo. 

The hospital has six Sierra Leonean and three professionally trained and qualified Cuban doctors, assigned by Government through the Health Ministry. We are expecting four more. Our laboratories, X-ray facilities and everything are functioning well. It will interest you to know that our doctors cut across all clinical disciplines or specializations, including medicine, surgery, pediatric, dental and eye. What we lack most is an Ear, Nose and Throat Specialist (ENT).

We operate on partial cost-recovery basis with a minimal registration fee of one thousand Leones only per patient. 

Our relationship with NGOs and civil society institutions has been and continues to be quite healthy. The refugee and displaced situation during the war led to some amount of improvement in the health care delivery. Organizations such as MSF Belgium and MSF France have been particularly helpful in establishing refugee camps and several major referral centres. These include those in Gondama, Gerihun and Jimmi in Bo district; Jembe, Tobanda and Largor in the Kenema District and Taima in Moyamba District.

The International Medical Council (IMC) has taken over from MSF France, which along with CARITAS and other organizations have also been very helpful in improving health facilities.

Other private clinics in Bo include the St Monica Clinic at Sewa Road and the Manjama Health Centre.  

You can only be capable of running a successful health care system when there is adequate mobility, and this is a common problem facing us.