Yambio State Hospital | Credit | Charles Wote/Eye Radio

Western Equatoria Health Minister said Yambio Civil Hospital is grappling with a dire shortage of staff as existing doctors are not enough to attend to increasing number of patients.

James Abdallah said he visited the state hospital last week and found that the common epidemics are diarrhea and malaria that affect mainly children.

According to Minister Abdallah, he also found that some women suffer from anemia, ulcers and cancer.

He said the hospital is further beset with inadequate supply of drugs, citing that the last supply of the consumable from the National Ministry of Health was in October 2023.

“It needs the state hospitals to have enough so that our staff can also match the sicknesses,” said Minister Abdallah in an interview with Eye Radio on Thursday.

While, he could not explain why the shortage of doctors, Mr. Abdallah said there are plans to send qualified doctors to the state civil hospital.

“We have a number of doctors, but they are not enough. What we require within the new project is, we need more qualified doctors to be sent to the state hospital especially the consultants.”

The National Minister of Health recently declared a yellow fever outbreak in some parts of the state, including Yambio, and a mass vaccination campaign is set to kick off soon.