New Georgia Health Center in deplorable condition

Conditions at the New Georgia Health Center, considered as the biggest health facility in Montserado County electoral District #13 are appalling and deplorable, nurses and patients alarm. The Center caters to hundreds of residents daily who cannot afford services at private health facilities in the district.

During a visit Wednesday, 2 September to the health center this writer observed that roof of the building is damaged badly, with raining flooding various offices, including the Patient’s Wall and Waiting Room.

The building and rooms for In-patients lack ceilings and window glasses, giving mosquitoes an opportunity to overrun the entire premises, infecting patients with Malaria and cold.

Madam Elizabeth Cooper, who took her baby for medication, laments that it is a serious disgrace that the Ministry of Health and the Government of Liberia would sit and allow such key public health facility to depreciate so badly to an extent that it now poses risk to patients going there to seek medication.

“Seriously, we don’t know what we have done to people we have elected to help us; look around for yourself and see how this place is bad off, every day we come here with our children for treatment, but while leaving, we take another sickness with us back home. Look right ehn, you see us sitting in the water and it didn’t rain much this morning,” Madam Cooper complains in disappointment.

A pregnant woman, Lucy, narrates that rain soaked them inside the building, while they waited to see nurses on duty but after examination; they received on prescriptions to go buy drugs from private health facility.

“When rain be falling, we be sitting water be dripping on us so that one they na care; the place again no drug, when we come sometime when no drug, they can write it on paper for us to go outside to buy medicine and some of us we don’t have money to buy medicine so we can leave on it till our children sickness can get serious till some of us children can die in our hand,” laments, as she outlines challenges patients face at the New Georgia Health Center.

Officer-In-Charge (OIC) Madam Claressa Howard, confirms the plight of patients reporting to the facility, pointing out that since she took over as head of the health center for the past four years, authorities at the Ministry of Health have been slow in responding to their needs.

She discloses that upon taken office, she met a newly constructed facility and was told belongs to the health center but since then that building has never been opened for use.

Madam Howard continues that some time she and her staffs contribute their personal funds to paint the building, and she have to take potion of her salary to pay people within the community to clear the compound because the health center does not have a caretaker or janitor to keep the place clean and healthy.

The O-I-C narrates further that on series of occasions, she had met with both former Montserrado County District#13 lawmaker, Saah Joseph, now Senator , whom is it is claimed constructed the new facility and his successor, Representative Edward Flomo to help address the protracted challenges the health center is faced with, but to no avail.

By Ben P. Wesee–Editing by Jonathan Browne