Africa-Press – South-Sudan. The Minister of Health, Elizabeth Achuei, has expressed serious concerns over grievances raised by the Juba Teaching Hospital heads of departments, who called for the appointment of an interim administration to prevent the hospital from collapsing.
Dr Kedianda Chong, who is the Spokesperson of the Ministry of Health and the Director of International Health, said Achuei had directed the aggrieved officials to nominate three people for her to act on as soon as possible.On Friday, the heads of departments and senior consultants at the hospital wrote a position paper to Achuei warning that the country’s main referral health institution would collapse should she fail to appoint the acting director-general and deputy within a week.
“Firstly, we request you, Honourable Minister, to appoint a care-taking administration for the hospital that will comprise a director-general and a deputy director-general within a week to manage the hospital to avoid a total collapse of the institution,” they said in a statement.
“Failure to address this administrative vacuum will atomically downgrade Juba Teaching Hospital from the level of tertiary hospital to a primary healthcare facility due to the manner in which the hospital is currently managed,” they warned.
Stalemate
The demand came following more than four months of administration vacuum at the hospital due to a disagreement between Achuei and Vice President for Service Cluster, Hussein Abdelbagi, over the restructuring. The stalemate has created an administration vacuum at the hospital since October last year.
It ensued when Abdelbagi directed the Undersecretary, Dr Victoria Anib Majur, to commission a review and restructuring of the hospital’s management, which was later revoked by Achuei.
But Dr Kediande said, “The letter was given to the minister, and the minister advised the consultants to go, brainstorm, and the minister will be meeting with them either on Wednesday or Thursday.”
“The minister also advised them that this is a collective responsibility [hence, they should], select three names and submit them so that she will select one of them and appoint,” he added.
Dr Kediande told The City Review on Monday that the Juba Teaching Hospital had been operating with no leader after the director-general was appointed by the minister but abandoned his job when Abdelbagi directed Dr Majur to change the hospital’s administration.
He added that the changes were made without Achuei’s knowledge when she was on a mission and that when she came back she cancelled the changes, leaving the hospital without a director-general.
At the time of this, Dr Majur stated that the changes were made to rescue the situation because people were dying, and they could not wait until Achuei came.
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