Inspite of substantial efforts by the government of Sierra Leone to augment health service delivery in the country by rehabilitating the main referral Connaught hospital in Freetown, some wards are engulfed with unbearable odour inadequate supply of water. On the above issue Awoko caught up with the Connaught hospital care manager Dr. Desmond Olu Black to substantiate the allegation. He explained that prior to the rehabilitation hospital, there was adequate supply of water in the hospital but immediately afterwards, water crisis started hitting hard. “I might not be right or wrong but probably the contractors may have blundered along the line and not Guma Valley Water Company” he said. He confirmed that,Guma has a plan to help surmount the problem.Guma public relations officer Joseph Musa has also confirmed this fact. Dr Black maintained that water is a vital component in running any modern hospital or clinic, especially for surgical and clinical cases. He continued that before the rehabilitation took off, most of the nursing staff and other senior personnel were redeployed at Satelite clinics in Freetown but some of them had left for greener pasture in search of better condition f service. He said their defection could not be unconnected with the chronic or perennial salary situation in the country. The hospital he said is being run by himself as the hospital care manager; matron, maintenance and facility manager and the hospital secretary with the help of the various sub committees, such as: finance, procurement, disciplinary, conflict resolution, complain and redress committees. On constraints, he said, some two years ago there non-availability of subvention to hospital, they had to rely on meagre charges from patients to accomplish some financial commitments facing the hospital. He recalled there was little or non-availability of essential food stuff in the hospital kitchen to sustain some 300 patients. He maintained that there is consistent supply of power and essential drugs with a provision of three 250 KVA standby generators.
By Solomon Rogers
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