Drugs shortage hits Naama Clinic in Bong

Serious drugs shortage has hit Naama Clinic in Zota District, Bong County, with reports emerging that nurses are giving prescriptions to patients to purchase drugs at private drug stores.

In conversation with reporters over the weekend in Naama Town, a Registered Nurse Esther Pewee stated that the shortage of drugs at the Naama Clinic is serving as one of the major challenges for health workers and pregnant women in that region.

She says as a result of the shortage of essential drugs for pregnant women, they continue to give prescriptions to patients to purchase drugs from private facilities in the district.

The Naama Clinic Registered Nurse described the drugs shortage as worrisome, stressing the need for the intervention of Bong County Health Team and the government.

Esther Pewee notes that if drugs are not available for pregnant women, they sometimes give birth before time. She maintains that new born babies most times get affected, adding that due to the shortage of drugs, pregnant women have already abandoned the maternal waiting home at the Clinic.

She says they have abandoned it because they do not have food for feeding while awaiting their delivery. Meanwhile Madam Pewee wants President George Manneh Weah’s government to employ health workers, put them on payroll and revamp health facilities across the country for the overall improvement of the health sector.

She reveals that the clinic has three professional staff and seven supportive staff, working to beef-up the health sector in the region. Some citizens who spoke to this paper in Naama Town are said to be using herbs as a result of the drugs shortage at the clinic.

Our Bong County correspondent says the situation has brought fear to residents of the area, and they are calling for government’s quick intervention through the Bong County Health Team.

Our correspondent says it is even difficult to see ordinary drugs like Paracetamol and Oral Rehydration Salt (ORS). The citizens say if the government doesn’t see reason to quickly intervene, residents of the area especially some of those who do not have money to seek medication at private facilities will die of malaria and other diseases.

By Joseph Titus Yekeryan in Bong –Edited by Winston W. Parley