Doctor Shortage Hits Aweil Hospital
Aweil Civil Hospital in Northern Bahr el Ghazal state is grappling with an acute shortage of qualified medical personnel and nurses even as the number of patients at the outpatient department keeps on increasing daily. 22 April 2013 Patients at the Aweil Civil Hospital in Northern Bahr el Ghazal State in June 2012. [Gurtong| File] By Abraham Agoth AWEIL, 21 April 2013 [Gurtong] - The Director for Aweil Civil Hospital in Northern Bahr el Ghazal state Dr. Garang Thomas Dhel has voiced out his worries that the state is facing numerous challenges as they attend to daily increase at the outpatient department said to be the most. According to Dhel, they attempt to make sure that whoever comes to hospital is seen by any medical officer who is on duty; but on circumstances where there are complications or emergency, they deem to attend to more urgent cases. He underscored that in the process of attending to more urgent cases, other patients who are not seen by the doctor within that moment may feel disregarded and discouraged for having less important sickness than the other but denied having intention of refusing medical attention. “We have been working day and night to ensure that our patients are attended to. Though there have been complaints of poor medical services in Aweil Civil Hospital, we always try our best to give it more attention so that our patients are treated on time and with immediate care as soon as possible,” says Dr. Garang. Though this has not been the case with most patients, Dr. Garang admitted fluctuations of poor services with regards to volume of patients being attended within the hospital and acknowledged that the hospital has no drugs. Awit Tong, who have been following to be attended says that it took her almost a week to be seen by a doctor and finally got no medicine for her sickness. “I came here on Monday and finally today Friday, I managed to see a doctor, I was tested and was found malaria positive. I was told to go and buy outside in the pharmacy but this is unfortunate that I don’t afford to buy drugs since my husband and I are not working,” said Awit Tong. “It is true that patients go home sometimes without being attended to or being attended and went back home without been given the drugs prescribed; this happens simply because of high demand of drugs and the higher increase of patients who at other times finish the stock within a week,” he said. Statistically, Dr. Garang revealed to the press that 2013 has more patients attended than 2012. Within March alone, over 13,000 patients have been registered at the Outpatient Department (OPD) but despite lack of medical practitioners within the state, Garang reveals that his ministry is planning to recruit qualified medical personnel with the limited resources. “The issue of relieving this long queue or congestion would have been solved if we had enough Doctors but it is unfortunate that there is no enough manpower to cover this gap. The reason of this big congestion is that this Hospital is the referral and only hospital in the state. When we talk of only three medical assistants attending to over 13,000 patients per month, then here is a huge gap,” he said. On technicality of finding the medical personnel, Garang added that it is hard to find qualified doctors easily while noting the high price cost involved in hiring a medical doctor from abroad to deliver with a huge amount. He appeals to the government to establish permanent concrete health facilities in the counties and around Aweil town to relieve and reduce high volume of attendance within Aweil Civil Hospital. Posted in: Home, Governance, Health -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "South Sudan Info - The Kob" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/groups/opt_out.
