Mohamed Sheik Kargbo the Chief Administrator of the Port Loko District Council has confirmed to Awoko that the district is flooded with quack doctors.
The CA stressed that they “have been actually fighting a battle with these traditional healers … recently a workshop was organised wherein issues of these quack doctors came up.
They have proliferated our chiefdom but that was discussed in the security meeting and the people have been sensitised about the ills of these quacks … they kill more that they cure and they should not be encouraged in these communities.”
Speaking about the activities of the Port Loko Council Mr Kargbo said that the health sector is actually doing well. He stated that since certain indicators or benchmarks have been placed on the health sector by the ministry and in the Millennium Development Goal that they should meet, they have been working to see that these goals are achieved.
“Part three or four of these goals are health related like for instance the high infant and maternal mortality rate, the high prevalence of HIV/AIDS, and the nutritional aspect we are trying to address as well, as the health sector is actually being assessed based on the achievement of those benchmarks, so this area is improving now” he said.
The CA went on to state that “our secondary health has actually improved now because initially we had a problem as most of the patients were going to private hospitals moving away from the government hospital but that trend has changed.
He explained “we have seen a high influx of patients into the government hospital than the private hospitals because the facilities have been improved, and it is cheaper now to go to the government hospital … the drugs are cheaper, and we have professional and dedicated medical personnel and the care for patient’s has improved.”
He pointed out that they “have just received posting of more health officers to the district so the service is improving now … the dieting in the hospital has also improved as the patients do have three course meals a day” adding that “this is also a means of attracting the patients.”
Matron Jamiru of the Port Loko government hospital confirmed that they “do have the problem of patients using traditional medicine … pregnant women do take traditional herbs when they notice that the medicine has not worked then they will be rushed to the hospital … if an operation is done we will find most of the herbs in the sack where the baby was.”
By Betty Milton
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