Yolanda Awel Deng, Minister of Health. (Photo: Awan Moses).

The national Minister of Health Yolanda Awel Deng blames the deplorable health services across the country on under-funding by the government.

Yolanda said the government’s unequal allocation of resources has left her ministry as one of the least-funded institutions in the country.

She said this is making it difficult for health workers to deliver services to the needy population.

“We have got so many challenges and our challenges are pointed toward the resources, health sector in South Sudan is undermined, it is under underfunded and we are just leaving it to the well-wishers,” said the minister.

“We cannot leave our health to somebody else to take care of it. Our health is security, our health is our property, and our health is peace and stability.”

The health sector in South Sudan is largely being supported by humanitarian partners, in addition to the government’s budget.

The Health Pooled Fund, which is the largest health care program in South Sudan, used to deliver health services in eight out of the ten states.

The program supported nearly 8,000 health workers in 797 public health facilities.

It also supported 25 hospitals, 195 Primary Health Care Centers and 577 Primary Health Care Units.

Health Pooled Fund provides health worker training and incentives, wider support to service delivery at health facilities, and technical assistance.

It is funded by the Governments of the UK, Canada, Sweden as well as USAID, EU delegation and GAVI the Vaccine Alliance.

However, the organization has scaled down 30% of its support, at a time when health facilities are in shambles.

In April 2022, an official at the ministry of health said at least eight major hospitals across the country risk being shut down after the Health Pooled Fund-South Sudan begun to scale down its activities.

While speaking during the commemoration of the World Aids Day on Thursday, Minister Yolanda said the country has qualified and specialized doctors, but they are not being paid enough.

“We have got public health institution, we have got specialized doctors, are we paying them enough? And we are saying that oh we have got not services, we have service, put money in it.”

She also decried the poor infrastructure in the health sector.

The minister called on both the national government and the donor community to invest more in health sector in the country.

“It is a high time everybody take control of our health, a lot of inequalities exist is health. Please, I appeal to everybody, fund the ministry of health, fund all health sector in the country,” he said.

According to Doctors Union, underfunded health sector by the government has forced trained health workers to move into the private sector or seek better-paying jobs with non-governmental organizations.

Last year, doctors called on the Ministry of Labor to review official salary rates of health professionals, adjust remunerations and ensure wages are paid between 25th to 30th days of every month.

EDITORIAL NOTE: Dear reader, you are informed that we have updated this story to remove some inaccurate information. Earlier we incorrectly referred to the Health Pooled Fund as a UK-Funded. We also wrote that the organization is departing the country, which is not true, and we apologize for the errors. The Pooled Fund is not supported by the UK government alone, but by a group of European countries including UK, Canada and US.