Liberian Health Facilities, Liberian People, Dr. Wilhemina Jallah,

Dr Wilhemina Jallah is a renowned medical surgeon with decades of experience. In this interview, she reveals how she reaches the people, in both rural and urban centres, with health facilities in timely manner, instead of the people scrambling for such services, making it the winning formular for Weah’s 2nd Term

Since you were appointed by President Weah, what are your achievements and challenges so far?

When we started the journey, the health sector was in a deplorable condition.  We wanted to see a reduction in maternal mortality that was in a frightened and embarrassing ratio. We also crave the urgent need for a reduction in neo-natal mortality, with an improvement in drugs and other facilities in our hospitals and health centers, in order to reduce trips out of the country.

First, we met 30 ambulances in the country, we raised them to 75, with ambulance centers  to call in, that are reachable to everyone and at any time, with a corresponding increase of manpower to 500 trained personnel.

We’ve also established a new trauma center and ICU at John F Kennedy JFK hospital. We’ve also established a dialysis center that was nonexistent in the past. In partnership with the World Bank and the Japanese Government, we opened our first dialysis center at JFK hospital. The President has also built the first Military hospital, which was opened timely when COVID- 19 hit the world.

Besides the Military hospital, we have the Emirate hospital built by the UAE government and the River side hospital which have been opened and functioning. We’ve also opened up many other health centers for our people in different locations in the country.

In manpower, from 11 specialists, today, we have 111 specialists in various specialized areas like obstetrics, gynecology, pediatrics, internal medicines, psychiatry and other specialist areas.

We’ve also constructed a bio-medical and infectious disease hospital, with ambulances ready to function round the clock. The infectious disease center will handle cases like Lassa, COVID or any other infections disease. In the counties, we have centers that can accommodate any infectious diseases. We have blood centers, with blood banks, ready to handle severe blood shortages in critical scenarios.

We managed COVID cares well during the COVID period. We now rank third in the region, in terms of people being vaccinated against COVID. We’ve set up oxygen facilities in Monsterrado, the capital and in 11 counties. Next week, there will be training of biomedical and oxygen the rapy officers. We are now the oxygen hub in the region.

We have improved neo-natal fatal cares with trained officials to reduce neo-natal fatalities in the country. This is effectively to handle new born babies in the country.

We have also reduced maternal mortality from 1175 to 749, though we still have more work to do to reduce maternal mortality cases in the country. It has been the most disturbing health fatality case since we came into power. We remain steadfast to further reduce the mortality ratio.

We have also ramped up vaccination of cases like measles for children nationwide. So with other vaccination facilities in the country have been scaled up for both adults and children.

We now have a central medical store, with refrigerator facilities to keep our drugs safe for effective usages. We now have the capacity to store our vaccines in every county, with solar –powered facilities.

We also have ventilators that were not available in the past, alongside medical equipment vital for successful surgery.

Our respiratory therapists are now setting up mini -ICUs in all the counties, with ventilators, oxygen concentrators and oxygen therapy, along with lots of trainings ongoing.

Now, with our challenges. COVID triggered our resolve to beef up our health infrastructure that was set backward, as it really hit our financial position as a country. So financial resource is one of our main challenges in the health sector. We started the drug revolving fund, to enhance drug availability to our people.

We provide solar-powered suitcases to counter severe energy challenges and hand water pumps for areas with water crisis. We still have more challenges in the health sector, but we strive hard to counter the challenges. We will not relent, until we reduce drastically these challenges.

What is the state of Primary Health Care centers in Liberia as they are the closest to the people?

The Primary Health Care Centers are where the solar-suitcases are domiciled. They are mainly community-based. The electricity is though solarization. Our nurses, midwives and community health supervisors that are stationed in these areas, work closely with these community health centers. We have about 5000 community health workers that work with the primary health care facilities, to handle cases like malaria, diarrhea and also handle cases like family planning. We also have traditional birth attendants that work in these community health centers.

What is the relationship between the Liberia Health Institution and other West Africa health institutions, particularly in training and research?

Our relationship with the West Africa Health Institutions is excellent. First, we work well with the West Africa College of physicians and Surgeons. Vigorous training programs are ongoing among our physicians and surgeons in the West African Region. We also work with the West Africa Health Organization WAHO in surveillance training, quality management and laboratory management and even audit the work we do. So the relationship is excellent. We also work with the Africa Centre for Disease Council ACDC and the World Health Organization WHO in capacity building.

What are the conditions of services for the Liberian Doctors and Health Workers, as there is a current braindrain of health workers in African continent?

Here in Liberia, we have graduated 111 specialists, but we lack lots of equipment for our health specialists to work with in their various fields of specialization. So we are working currently on purchasing some of the equipment. For instance, our neuro-surgeons work with foreign establishments to provide neuro-surgery equipment. So also cardiac surgery and other areas of specialization. We are working to put in place equipment in these various areas of specialization to retain our doctors. However, our doctors are well paid compared to our neighbours. Our main challenge is putting in place the equipment and other facilities they need to work proficiently.

For the other health sector workers, like nurses, mid wives, lab technicians and others, we are putting in place facilities like laboratories and manpower to enhance productivity. We’ve also scaled up training programs for our nurses and other category of staff in the health sector to beef up their productivity. The training programs are conducted in all the counties. So equipment facilities are the cornerstone of our determination to retain our health sector workers to seek greener pastures, despite better pay packages. Also we need to have uniformity in all the counties in terms of their facilities. Lots of facilities are in the pipeline for the health sector workers. So when President Weah comes back for 2nd term, we will continue with this robust drive in the health sector.

 This leads to the question of President Weah’s 2nd term. In your estimation, as the Minister of Health,What will you say, in the health sector, will convince Liberians, to vote President Weah for a 2nd Term?

I strongly believe the people, particularly in the rural areas, should vote for President Weah, because the Primary Health System is in  all the rural communities in all the counties. Two things will be visible, for the people to see before elections, more drugs and more health workers, with equipment, will be available in our communities, nationwide. Better things are in the pipeline for our rural community in the next few weeks. We have the health workers in place, but we are waiting for few things to be put in place, to enable the people to move from the farm work to the facilities and back.

Our strategy is to reach to the people both in the rural and urban centers, to get our health services in a timely manner. We reach the people with health facilities, instead of the people reach us. We take health facilities to the people, instead of the people scrambling for such services, as in other countries. This is President Weah’s winning strategy for a 2nd Term, in the health sector.