Nurses Owe Patients Their Care

The First Lady of Sierra Leone, Mrs. Sia Nyama Koroma has called on nurses to change their attitudes toward patients in their care.
The First lady made this statement during the launching of the Health for All Coalition Sierra Leone at the PCM Hospital on Wednesday, also stating, “We owe the patients their care. Our attitudes as nurses should change,” she said.
She said her focus on health is borne out of the commitment to make a difference in the lives and children and women in the country, stating that her office want to examine the role that people who are entrusted with roles to perform do so in the best interest of the people.
Duties
She said most nurses in reproductive health care are not up to their duties and that their attitudes toward pregnant women are poor and therefore called upon all to realize their roles in society as crucial to society.
A representative of the Ministry of Health, Dr. Magnus Gborie, said Sierra Leone has the highest of child death in the world and that 1300 women died of pregnancy related causes out of 100,000 reported cases.
“We are not happy about this development. In England the best performing doctors are Sierra Leoneans. But where are we today; this is a very serious situation,” he lamented.
Poor capacity
He said one of the obstacles is poor human resource management strategy and that the Ministry has realized that if Sierra Leone should achieve the Millennium Development Goals, they should focus to improving this strategy.
Gborie also disclosed that the National Health Service Commission has been approved by Parliament and that its purpose is to improve the health sector to reach the people with medical care.
He said the Ministry is please to have HFAC as partners in the campaign for health for all in Sierra Leone and that he believes that monitoring health service sector around the country will ensure good service delivery.
A pregnant woman admitted at the PCM Hospital, Aminata Samura, said women are suffering in Sierra Leone and that some patients admitted in hospitals died due to fear of demands for more payment by doctors for treatment.
Late Clinics
“Some pregnant women repot late in clinics because they cannot afford to pay to hospitals and ended dying in their homes,” she said, adding that many of these women are responsible for their homes.
The Chairman of HFAC, Charles Mambu, said Sierra Leoneans should not be dying for curable illnesses if they could not afford to pay the fees.
“The idea of money before treatment should stop. Sierra Leoneans should be provided with the medical care they needed,” he noted.
Meanwhile the coalition is to monitor all health sector providers to ensure that Sierra Leoneans receive medical treatment, especially pregnant women and children.