MoH Unveils 7 Additional Vehicles and Medical Supplies
Freetown, Sierra Leone Thursday June 13.
The Government of Sierra Leone (GoSL) and its health development partners, have provided the Ministry of Health (MoH) with seven additional vehicles and medical supplies, which were unveiled in the early hours of Thursday this week. These items are aimed at accelerating access to health services, improve monitoring and supervision of commodities and boost overall health outcomes for mothers and their babies.
Health Minister, Dr. Austin Demby, speaking of his excitement and expectations for the new vehicles and medical supplies received in Freetown on Thursday 13th June, 2024.
Addressing a highly hopeful crowd, the Minister of Health, Dr. Austin Demby, expressed his excitement for receiving the items stating that the expectations for their use are high.
“With these vehicles, the challenges of monitoring and supervision of medical supplies will be mitigated. The medical supplies will enable health service providers to provide care in a timely manner and patients will also have access to vital supplies including lifesaving drugs and we will make sure this happen.”
The Minister believes that with these items, healthcare will be more accessible to every Sierra Leonean and additional lives will be saved.
Dr. Austin Demby, left, cuts tape on the additional 7 vehicles provided by the GoSL and its health development partners.
It could be recalled that last month, MoH also received 19 new vehicles including 10 ambulances that were also provided by GoSL and its health development partners. The gesture was to help improve referral systems and ease patients’ access to medical care. Put together, the vehicles plus medical supplies are worth around $USD3.5M. While the ambulances will help improve referral and emergency response time, the medical supplies will significantly leverage on maternal and child health outcomes.
In the past, Sierra Leone was dubbed as one of the worst places to become a mother because of the high incidences of maternal and child deaths. But all this has changed with remarkable improvement in the number of women surviving during and after child birth.
The Minister of Health and a cross section of MoH staff inspect the medical supplies at a store in the East of Freetown.
Under the leadership of Dr. Austin Demby, maternal deaths have reduced drastically from 1165 to 771 and from 717 to 443 in just two years. The Demby-led administration is further determined to drop these figures even further to 300 or less by 2025. But achieving this ambitious target requires a bold and radical shift in mindset, patient care and service delivery. That is why the purchase of these vehicles and medical supplies is a testament to the government’s determination and commitment to transform the healthcare fortunes of all Sierra Leoneans.
