17 April, 2008

Ernest Coker

Lungi Government Hospital in Turmoil

It is about two years now, since Dr. Pratt took over the Lungi government hospital from Dr. Parker but since then he has been under serious pressure to handle the day today running of the hospital.

Dr. Pratt talked to Sierra Express and highlighted the reasons for the total breakdown in administration at the hospital. Dr. Pratt said the problem started with the quarters allocated to him as his residence.  He said the quarters are not at all a fit human residence and he has therefore refused to reside there for the sake of health and other reasons. 

That not withstanding, Dr. Pratt told Sierra Express that he is not getting the cooperation of the staff he met within the hospital administration.  The lawless attitude of the nurses and other staff is creating lots of problems for the hospital administration.  “I was thinking that I will enjoy my work here as I speculated that I will meet a wonderful staff that will cooperate with me and we collectively serve the people,” Dr. Pratt said with bitter feeling. The doctor went further to say that some workers have ganged up against him and are posing serious threat to his job.  He said people like; Matron Hawa Kaifala, Nurse Rugiatu, Adama Conteh, Emilie and Jaka are going to the extent of sabotaging his profession.

When our reporter asked the doctor the reason for these people to gang against him, he responded by saying that it is because he has come with a new system of controlling the finances of the hospital that is liked by staff he met. Dr. Pratt revealed that the matron, Hawa Kaifala has been engaging herself in the hospital financial malpractices, taking advantage of the weakness of the financial officer, he also said that, earlier, he had warned Nurse Rugiatu not to open a pharmacy in front of the hospital but Rugiatu did not respect that order and went ahead in doing it.  Although it is suspected that Rugiatu is conniving with the hospital dispensers to supply drugs to her pharmacy no one is ready to assist him in curbing the malpractices of the hospital, the doctor explained in a frustrated tone.

On contacting the hospital secretary, Mr. Kallon, he told Sierra Express that Dr. Pratt’s claim may not be far from the truth.  He gave an example of a nurse, one Adama Conteh, who has been transferred to the Connaught Hospital that is using her political connections to bring the character of the doctor in disrepute.  Mr. Kallon said that this Adama Conteh is the nurse that differs the directives of Dr. Pratt and that resulted to making a woman lose her baby.  He said, it is that same nurse that is using the APC radio Rising Sun to falsely propagate things that are happening in the hospital.  

When our reporter tried to contact some of the staff of the hospital to talk on the allegations all of them refused to talk to him.

For this reason the community people are now calling for stakeholders to summon a meeting so that the problem of the hospital can be solved. It is also whispered that some members of the community are planning to invite the Anti-Corruption Committee (ACC) to intervene.

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