By P. Clarence Jackson. latifahkpah172@gmail.com
Cell #: 0886458902/0777464050
Central Liberia’s main referral hospital, Phebe located in Suakoko, Bong County is on the verge of collapse, if nothing is done to help the hospital pay more than US$300,000.00 debt owed vendors, according to the Medical Director of the hospital Dr. Jefferson Sibley.
“We might be forced to close the hospital in the coming weeks because our vendors have refused to supply us drugs and fuel oil because we owe them,” he said.
Dr. Sibley told www.newspublictrust.com that the amount was accrued from drugs, fuel oil and the running of the Phebe School of Nursing.
“At the moment, we are only treating by prescriptions because there is no drug in the hospital, Dr. Sibley said.
According to Dr. Sibley, electricity at the hospital is cut off by 10Pm as part of a strategy is to ensure the running of the hospital.
“We have a daily inpatient of between 125-150 and an out-patient of between 175-200, so if this hospital is closed, it would a very serious problem to health care delivery not only to the people of Bong County, but neighboring counties as well as the Republic of Guinea where patients are sometimes brought from.”
At the moment, Dr. Sibley said the hospital has One Point Eight million US dollars in the 2018/2019 fiscal budget, but it needs Three million US dollars to function effectively.
“We have cry and cry, and cry but no one seem to be listening to us, we don’t have syringes, gloves, catheters, and essential drugs and if things continue this way, we will have no other option but to close down the hospital because the hospital cannot be open and there is no drugs to treat our people,” Dr. Sibley noted in an angry tone.
Dr. Jefferson Sibley
At the just-ended Bong County Council sitting in Gbarnga, the people of the County through delegates from the various districts allotted Seventy Nine Thousand US dollars to the hospital.
The Phebe hospital was constructed in 1965 as a faith-based health facility by three churches, the Lutheran, the Episcopal and the Methodist churches, with support from the government of Liberia.
In 1973, the hospital became the Bong County Referral Hospital of the Government during the tenure of the late President William R. Tolbert due to financial constraint but it is owned by the churches.
Prior to the outbreak of Liberia’s 14years of civil war, the hospital was one of the best within the Mano River Basin, treating patients from Guinea, Sierra Leone Ivory Coast, among others.