Doctors abandoning hospitals

Medical Doctors here are said to be abandoning the hospitals due to the low scale of salaries for doctors and nurses, ELWA Hospital Medical Director, Doctor Jerry Brown has disclosed. He said as a result, many practitioners are leaving clinical medicine for the law profession.

But he was quick to point out that the situation could turn around for medical practitioners and also for patients too, adding the time is coming when patients will no longer be referred to Ghana and othercountries for medical attention, rather expressing confidence thatpeople would come to Liberia for treatment.

Speaking after receiving the keys to a modern ELWA Hospital constructed bySamaritan’s Purse on Saturday, 22 October in Paynesville, Doctor Brownsaid the ratio of doctors to patients in Liberia is horrible.

President Ellen Johnson – Sirleaf, Vice President Joseph NyumahBoakaiand his wife and Samaritan’s Purse CEO Rev. Dr. Franklin Graham and hisdelegation from the U.S. graced the dedicatory program on Saturday.

Doctor Brown said as the new ELWA Hospital opens, curable diseasesthat took the lives of patients will now be cured, especially notingthat laboratory machines that the hospital never had will soon be installed.

While acknowledging that the hospital will not solve all medicalproblems, Doctor Brown, however, said nurses will not be turningpatients down anymore for lack of space or due to the lack of adequate laboratory investigation surrounding their health problems.

Speaking at the dedicatory ceremony, President Ellen Johnson – Sirleaf described Samaritan’s Purse CEO Rev.Graham as a great partner to Liberia, as she applauded him for thehospital that she said can be compared to other health facilities inthe region.

President Sirleaf said the hospital was a monument of God’s love toLiberia, and a symbol of hope, strength and the determination thatLiberia can rise again after going through a period of calamity.

She recalled how Samaritan’s Purse helped and worked here in Liberiaduring the Ebola crisis, and ELWA Hospital became a place where peopleran for rescue during the Ebola outbreak that killed over 4000 Liberians and left behind thousands of orphans, widows, and widowers.

President Sirleaf pledged to Rev. Graham, a continuation to “ourChristian principles,” and the long years of partnership andfriendship.” Responding to concern as to why Christians are involved in medicalpractice, Rev. Graham said Samaritan’s Purse follows the example ofJesus Christ who came and cared for the sick and cured those withleprosy which was dangerous like Ebola.

He said people with leprosy were isolated just as Ebola patients arealso isolated today; but Jesus made the leprosy patient cleaned. Assuch, he said Samaritan’s Purse was here in Liberia and he wanted the hospital to be a testimony of good works of Jesus Christ.

The hospital was built as a result of Rev. Graham’s vision from hisdecision made in 2011. He hopes that the hospital would be a placefor both physical and spiritual healing. 

By Winston W. Parley