Bor State Hospital | Credit | Charles Wote/Eye Radio

The Director of Bor State Hospital in Jonglei State says delays in medical supplies and a shortage of health workers are affecting the quality of services provided to patients at the facility.

According to Dr. Phillip Majok, the hospital received a small quantity of medical supplies in April, adding that before that, the facility had gone for six months without drug supplies.

He said the April consignment was quickly exhausted due to high demand.

Dr. Majok said Bor State Hospital, the largest health facility in Jonglei State, treats at least 300 patients per day and carries out more than 20 surgeries per month.

He added that despite the high number of patients, the number of qualified health workers remains critically low.

“The last shipment of drugs was last month and before that it was six months ago and we have been having a deficit for many months,” he said.

“The Bor hospital is a big facility with 300 people accessing accident and emergency and OPD per day. 330 deliveries in the maternity per month. And neonatal unit receives an average of 120 admissions per month and more than 20 procedures in the surgical ward. So, if you look at the number of people we serve, yet we only have 130 personnel being supported by the current HTSC project yet we need 5 times that number of staff,” he stated.

He said lack of adequate funding has left the hospital operating under serious constraints, with a few medical workers supported through the World Bank-funded Health Sector Transformation Project (HSTP).

Dr. Majok said the hospital needs at least five times more staff than it currently has.

“The task of funding health care falls on the government starting with the state government. The government has to invest in the health of the people because health care is the business of government. If we push the health care to the partners they cannot cover it,” he added.