Report by Bettie Johnson-Mbayo, [email protected]
Nimba County – In order to generate revenue to sustain itself, Liberia’s second largest referral hospital, Jackson Fiah Doe Memorial Regional Referral Hospital in Nimba County, is now planting cocoa and oil palm.
In the 2017/2018 budget, the hospital was allotted US$2.79 million but the hospital is still owed US$236,000.
As projected in the 2018/19 proposed budget under the CDC-led government, the Ministry of Health will get over US$58.9 million, while JFD hospital will get US$3,015,363. This is an increment in the hospital budget, but the hospital concern about the disbursement of the full amount to it.
The Acting CEO and Medical Director Dr. James Sobboh said the hospital has turned to agriculture as a means of generating funds to run the hospital.
Speaking at a community media forum on the budget on health in Tapitta, Nimba County organized by Liberia Media Democracy initiative with support from USAID, Dr. Sobboh said although the hospital received donations in supplies, materials and equipment from donors the government is the only sponsor financially.
It is the second of four forums aimed at engaging citizens and media on the national budget, the first forum focused on education and the Tapitta forum focused on health.
Dr. Sobboh said budgetary allotment to the hospital is not enough, adding that disbursement to the hospital has been reducing.
He commended the former Medical Director and CEO, Dr. Francis Kateh, who is the current Chief Medical Officer of Liberia.
“When he was CEO he secured 50 acres of land in Gbie and Doru district and when I took over I decided to go ahead and make sure our dream come true,” he said.
Gbie and Doru is an administrative district located at the boundaries of Nimba, Grand Bassa, Rivercess, Sinoe and Grand Gedeh Counties.
“We decided to plant palm, Cocoa and vegetables so that the money we will take to buy bitterball, pepper and greens why can’t we use it for something else to improve the hospital,” he said.
“In the future, we will get income from our farm to do something that we have to do because we can’t get all money from government to do everything so we want is to increase our ability by getting extra income.”
The farm is producing corn, bitterballs, pepper, cucumber, paw-paw and patients are already consuming the products from the farm.
Christie Dowah, Paramount Chief of Zodru Chiefdom, Kparblee District, Nimba County, suggested that the hospital would obtain more land from his district to expand its farming projects.
Senior Media specialist Maureen Siah, speaking on behalf of Internews, said the community forum intends to get citizens involve in the budget.
Said Sieh: “USAID believe in citizen engagements, and we are proud that we are getting you involve because our donors wouldn’t always want to support our budget so we must take charge and look at the main sectors.”
Several citizens outlined challenges they faced at the hospital, mentioning frequent power outage and limited drug supply.
Ma Mary Troken said “The light supposed to go by 4 pm, but it can leave by 2 pm, so all the money they can receive from government whereplay (where) it can go?”
“Every time you bring somebody here most of the times no drugs in the hospital, you will have to buy the drugs from the drugstore. It is dangerous because if you are on a bed you will have to pay for time,” added Chris Joe, another resident.
Responding to the claims, Dr. Sobboh said road condition is a challenge, while consenting to the shortage of drugs at the hospital. He added that drugs supplies are delay due to the bad road condition.
“We appeal to you that we will not always have drugs because when the rain comes it is difficult for trucks to easily access the roads,” he said, while attributing the outage of power due to low budgetary support.
“35-40 percent of our budget goes to power generation and we used 8,000 gallons of gasoline a month, sometimes our vendors can refuse to credit us because we owe them.”
The hospital has a standing schedule that runs from 10am-4AM and 6PM-6AM and if there is an emergency the power is kept on, or during surgery.
“When we have a patient on life support we can’t shut the power, patients who need C.T scan or X-ray we don’t also cut it off, but as I said the reason we cut it off is because of low budgetary support.”
The hospital Deputy Administrator, Ebenezer Strother said over LD$40,000 bills owed by patients are sometimes waived, adding that it waives up to US$10,000 on gratis.
“At first we said it was free service but since the budget is low so we had to attach fees because there are lot of services,” Strother said.
Some patients bring animals as payment for their bills, he said.
He added that the hospital has 254 employees but considered its corporate social responsibility and has employed 118 residents of Tappita. He also emphasized the shortage of nurses due to limited budgetary allotment.
“Sometimes, nurses on shift go for patients and its 3-4 hours, this hospital doesn’t have an ambulance-nurse so we use the nurses on shift, and also we don’t have community service nurse due to the same budgetary allotment.”