From: barnhart@gagme.chi.il.us (Mr Aaron Barnhart)
Subject: IPS: SOMALIA: HEALTH SERVICES IN SHAMBLE
Originator: barnhart@gagme
Organization: Evanston, Illinois
Date: Fri, 28 Aug 1992 22:41:44 GMT

Area: Africa, north
Reference: Third World Dvpmnt
Title: SOMALIA: HEALTH SERVICES IN SHAMBLES


an inter press service feature

by horace awori

mogadishu, aug 21 (ips) -- the combined effects of civil war and
drought in somalia have left the country's hospitals paralysed,
largely dependent on aid for their day to day running.

digfer, somalia's one-time showcase hospital is presently
operating almost entirely on drugs and medical supplies donated
by the international red cross committee (icrc).

''we are doing our best to run this hospital without any cash
or budget'', dr mohammed hussein, acting director of digfer told
ips here.

according to hussein although the faction fighting in
mogadishu has ceased, the hospital gets numerous casualties from
the daily routine of looting and banditry in the somali capital.

''we need antibiotics badly because most of the cases are
gun-shot wounds,'' says hussein.

according to hussein, since the ceasefire last week between
the warlords interim president ali mahdi and gen. farah aideed,
the icrc, who have remained in the city throughout the fighting,
has reduced it's supplies to a quarter of what it used to offer.

the icrc says it has handed over responsibility for supplying
the 400-bed hospital to unicef. meanwhile, though the hospital
has appealed to non governmnental organisations (ngo's) they too
feel that this a responsibility of the u.n. and the world health
organisation (who).

the hospital has also suffered a serious braindrain. without
salaries for two-years, and with the insecurity of mogadishu,
those doctors and nurses that have found the opportunity have
left for the middle east.

''before january 1991 we had 75 doctors here at digfer,''
disclosed hussein, ''but now we have only 24 left and i have no
incentives to ensure they stay''.

the international medical corps (imc) has now sent in two
doctors and seven nurses while the icrc has a surgical team.

the hospital also has no transport, ''not even an
ambulance.'' lack of specialists such as neuro surgeons and
urologists has resulted in many fatalities and patients have
experienced near starvation due to lack of food supplies.
(more/ips)


somalia: health (2)

''it is ironical to treat people for bullet wounds and then
have them starve here in the hospital. icrc is doing its best to
supply the hospital with food but it is not enough.''

the situation at medina hospital in south mogadishu is not
much better.

run by the french relief agency medecins sans frontiers
(msf) the hospital has two surgeons, two anaesthetists and six
nurses. the msf has set up tents for ward accomodation as the
hospital ward only has a capacity for 20 beds.

''we have 60 patients in the tents and twenty in the ward''
says abdelkadir mohamed mouhamud, the msf administrator. ''more
than 99 per cent of the cases are gunshot wounds from the daily
clashes in the capital''.

the medina hospital also serves as a feeding centre for
the malnourished children and the elderly. msf runs six other
feeding centres in south mogadishu which is under the united
somali congress faction of aideed.

adar abdi fido, the co-ordinator for the save the children
fund at the benedir hospital says they ''admit all who show
signs of malnutrition.''

mothers with malnourished children are allowed to stay.
though the hospital was built for about 50 patients, it now
accomodates more than 400. ''and even when they get better they
cannot be discharged for most are displaced and would have
nowhere to go,'' fido told ips.

according to fido, although patients come to the hospital
with diseases such as diarrhoea, pneumonia, anemia and
tuberclosis ''really the main contributor to all these diseases
is malnutrition.''

more than 1.5 million somalians, half a million of them
children are threatened not only by starvation but also disease.
(ends/ips/ha/tvh/oa/92)




-- 
Mr. Aaron Barnhart@gagme.chi.il.us -- posting from Evanston, Illinois
Newsgroups: soc.culture.african