I went to Hargeisa's General Hospital yesterday. It is Somaliland's only referral hospital. Apart from a brand new operating theatre (built with donor aid and equipped with $500,000 worth of equipment donated by the Kuwait Red Cross - not a Somaliland shilling from the government), the hospital is a depressing, pathetic place. Old, fading blood stains still splattered the paving stones beyond the main gate, the plaster-ceiling of the paediatric ward was caving in and the mental patients just don't get any care at all. There simply isn't the man-power to give patients the care they require so they lie chained to the bed. The deep groans and strong odour make for a tragic place.
The other day I blogged about the Somaliland government budget. $30 million dollars in all last year, up to $50 million this year thanks to some foreign funding for elections that the President decided to put-back a year. The Ministry of Health receives just $750,000 from the pie. As a result, the poorest patients in one of the poorest regions of the world have to pay for their own treatment and medicine. The official term is something like "community payment" i.e the clan pays. Doctors at the hospital are paid just $65 a month. A new medical school in the nearby town of Boroma is churning out the first doctors the country has trained for decades - 16 in all last year. The British government is having to supplement their salary with an extra $435 a month to keep them not only in the country but in the public sector.
In the paediatric ward, flies swarmed all over the plates of old food brought in by relatives of patients. There was a single oxygen cylinder in the corner of the room but it didn't work. There were three children in with severe malnutrition. The skin of one starving toddler, whose glazed eyes stared vacantly, was riddled with something nasty, his feet swollen with fluid. The remedy should be simple, starting with high energy milk. Except there isn't any high-energy milk in the country. "His case shouldn't be difficult", said Dr Farhan, one of last year's medical graduates, "but we can't be sure he'll make it".
The one ray of hope for this hospital is its staff...paid peanuts but dedicated to caring for their patients.
That's it from Hargeisa. Back to Nairobi.
Good and sincere comment. I agree with you most of what you've said about Hargeisa hospital. Lack of funds is what is keeping this hospital from being more advanced.
I hope there will be a big change very soon.
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