The beverage maker, Sierra Leone Bottling Company has donated a consignment of drugs, medical supplies and drugs worth US$ 200,000 to the King Harman Road Hospital. In a statement before the donation, the Regional General Manager for Sierra Leone and Liberia Rocky Findley said they were not only in Sierra Leone to do business but also to  help improve on the quality of life of the people.   Mr. Findley described the donation as a way of complementing the government’s free health care scheme.   He pledged his company’s commitment to continue the delivering of quality products, invest more capital as well as supporting the developmental strides of the country.   The Medical Superintendent of the King Harman Road Hospital, Doctor Alex Kanu commended the Sierra Leone Bottling Company for the donation which he said would help improve the status of the hospital, especially so when it had been constrained with medical equipment and drugs.   Tamba Borbor Sawyer, Deputy Minister of Health and Sanitation while commending the company said his ministry would monitor the use of the drugs and equipment to ensure that they reach the targeted beneficiaries.            

The Programme Manager for Child Health in the Ministry of Health and Sanitation said the pre-launch of the pneumonia campaign in Sierra Leone is to create visibility and raise awareness on the Acute Respiratory Infection (ARI) in the country. Reverend Doctor Thomas Samba said the ARI mostly affect children and was largely responsible for infant deaths in the country. He said government and the World Health Organisation was already on the stage of co-funding to make it available in the country noting Sierra Leone was the first country in Africa to access such opportunity.  Dr. Samba told CTN that it was good for parents to embrace the seven vaccines in the programme which would prevent ten childhood killer diseases.  Dr. Samba added that the ministry was currently preparing to formally launch the vaccine in Bo at the end of this month.  He said the government and private health institutions would routinely deliver the service to children under five.      

The Minister of Health and Sanitation says no nation can prosper with a poor healthcare delivery service to its people. Zainab Hawa Bangura made the statement while addressing members of the Nurses and Midwives Board of Sierra Leone at the Youyi Building in Freetown.   The minister said the board has both moral and ethical responsibility to ensure that the policy and guidelines set by the government are efficiently implemented. She described nursing and midwifery as noble professions and called on the health workers to restore the dignity and credibility the professions once enjoyed.   Mrs. Bangura also urged the board to develop proposals that would make inroads for the growth of the health sector of the country. She expressed her determination to increase the number of nurses in a bid to ensure more efficient service delivery.   Reverend Gloria Betts Cole is former president of the West African College of Nursing and a member of the board.   She expressed disappointment over the delay in absorbing nurses into the civil service and what she called the proliferation of mushroom nursing schools in the country.   She said nursing required intelligent, trained and qualified personnel to handle human lives.

Pregnant women and suckling mothers in Mano, Njiama Bongor chiefdom, Bo district have raised concern over the shortage of drugs at their community health post. They told CTN that they were at the health post on Monday and Tuesday this week for treatment and could not be provided with any drugs. They said the forced them to buy drugs from peddlers.   Josephine Harding, the community health nurse attached to the health post confirmed to CTN the claims made by the patients and added that the drugs store was empty and therefore could not administer drugs to patients.   She said she was not certain as to when she would get the next supply.   She said the shortage of drugs in health centres was a major setback to the implementation of the free health care scheme in that suburb part of the country.   The community health nurse urged the Ministry of Health to take the necessary action to enable the targeted beneficiaries benefit from the scheme.