By Saio Marrah
The government of Japan through a grant of 23.83 million dollars is set to construct an ultra-modern Children’s Teaching Hospital with 152 bed capacity in Sierra Leone for the Lumley Community.
The Construction of the Children’s Teaching Hospital will commence in the first week of September this year, and is expected to be completed by 2023.
The construction of the medical facility will have 30 households totaling 250 people that had encroached on the land site, evacuated, with a compensation of 15 million Leones per household by the government of Sierra Leone.
The pediatric health facility will consist of an Operation Theatre, Intensive Care Unit (ICU), Emergency Treatment Room, Special Baby Care Unit to treat new-born babies with special circumstances and Clinics, to save babies and children with critical medical conditions.
The Medical Superintendent of the old Lumley hospital that has been relocated to Beach Road Lumley, Dr. Nathaniel Williams noted that the number of patients coming to them has grown significantly despite having only 32 beds with 5 of those, for children. He also pointed out that they mostly have to admit children on couches.
According to Dr. Williams, the temporary relocation is a win-win situation with the new facility to boast of being the first government hospital with oxygen facility. He also disclosed that they will be doing medical diagnostics.
The Minister of Health and Sanitation, Dr. Austin Demby in his keynote address said it was a joyous moment for the country, acknowledging President Julius Maada Bio’s priority on health, saying a healthy nation is a developed nation.
He said as a ministry, they are concerned about the kind of treatment pregnant women get when they are in labour, and the kind of health care they should provide for babies.
He said they are looking at getting Sierra Leoneans access extremely high quality healthcare, no matter where they find themselves.
He gave a picture of what a baby in Sierra Leone is expected to get by saying: “And when this healthy baby is born, what kind of healthcare do we provide for this baby to ensure that they survive, and are alive to be actively doing everything a healthy baby should be doing, to be prosperous and live useful citizens in the future,”.
He noted that the healthcare of babies is very critical at that moment for which reason he said they as a ministry, are doing everything they can to attend to health care needs both in quantity, quality, affordability and accessibility across the country.
He also described the soon- to- be constructed pediatric hospital as a Centre of excellence. “We will build a 152 bed pediatric Centre of excellence. What is Centre of excellence here? A Centre of excellence is a location where you have all of the range of services for pediatrics using complex diagnostic material, equipment and specialty.’’
He said for this reason, they will make sure affordable and improved facilities are provided to the people of Sierra Leone and noted that Lumley hospital is just an example of what will happen to the rest of the country, and acknowledged the over populated status of Lumley.
The Member of Parliament representing the community, Ibrahim Tawa Conteh thanked the ministry for providing such a huge and advanced facility in his community of 65,000 people. He also thanked the government for the compensation offered to those that had lived on the hospital land site
A separate general hospital facility of 100 beds supported by the Kuwaiti Government which is also within the same compound as the proposed pediatric hospital, has been 85 percent completed.
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