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Health

Phebe Hospital risks closure

Phebe Hospital is at the verge of collapse due to the lack of sufficient budgetary support to run the hospital.

In a recent interview with our Bong County correspondent, the Medical Director at the hospital Jefferson Sibley says at the moment the hospital is out of drugs and indebted to vendors in the tune of more than US$300,000.

According to Dr. Sibley, the debt was accrued for drugs, fuel oil and the running of the nursing school.He says vendors are refusing to supply the hospital until its obligations are settled.

Due to challenges confronting the Hospital, Dr. Sibley laments that the electricity there is switched off before 10 PM as part of strategies to preserve the fuel oil and keep the hospital running.

He furthers that patients are normally given prescriptions to buy drugs because of the situation.Dr. Sibley indicates that the hospital needs US$3m to function effectively, but it has US$1.8m alloted in the 2018/2019 National Budget.

He calls on the leadership of Bong County to consider the Phebe Hospital a priority in its development drive.At the just ended Bong County Council sitting, the county allotted US$79,000 for the hospital.

Phene Hospital was constructed in 1965 as a faith – based health facility by three churches – the Lutheran, the Episcopal and the Methodist churches, with support from the government of Liberia.

In 1973, the hospital became Bong County Referral Hospital, and placed under government control during the tenure of the late President William R. Tolbert. The decision was due to financial constraint.

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Prior to the outbreak of Liberia’s 14 years of civil war, the hospital was one of the best within the Mano River Basin, treating patients from Guinea, Sierra Leone and Ivory Coast, among others.

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

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NewDawn

The New Dawn is Liberia’s Truly Independent Newspaper Published by Searchlight Communications Inc. Established on November 16, 2009, with its first hard copy publication on January 22, 2010. The office is located on UN Drive in Monrovia Liberia. The New Dawn is bilingual (both English & French).
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