- Written by Wade C. L. Williams, wade.williams@frontpageafricaonline.com
- Published: 22 September 2014
Monrovia - Six
Ambulances packed with 24 suspected Ebola patients were already on
standby as the opening ceremony for a 120-bed Ebola Treatment Facility
constructed by the government of Liberia with technical support from the
World Health Organization was going on.
At the side entrance of the building
were some patients who managed to walk with the help of their relatives
to the center at the Old Island Clinic on the Bushrod Island. Some
groaned in pain as others lay on the ground under the hot Sunday
afternoon sun, waiting and praying for the formalities to be over so the
staff could let them in, to the facility to begin to receive care.
Mr. Sam Bropleh, an Ambulance driver of the First Responders owned by Rep. Saah Joseph said he had been waiting with patients in the vehicle at the facility. Bropleh was frustrated that his patients could not get in as the formalities of an opening ceremony attended by senior government officials were still on. The facility comes as a relief to a health system that has been overwhelmed by the deadly Ebola outbreak since March this year.
Patients dying for lack of space
At many of the available facilities that had been opened before this one, patients were turned away for lack of space. On Saturday, in one of the two Ambulances carrying ten persons, there were three dead bodies of suspected Ebola patients. A mother and her two children died while waiting for help at the John F. Kennedy Ebola Treatment Unit, the former Cholera Unit. Health workers refused to take the patients in on time because they said there was no space at the facility.
Three members of a single family sat upright in the Ambulance but they were dead. The woman believed to be in her late thirties had her ten-year-old son’s head on her lap and the other son thirteen years old was sitting up in the Ambulance near the other two, but they were all dead. It was a pathetic sight and William Ross driver of the First Responders Ambulance was dismayed.
“This morning we left the Redemption Hospital for JFK. We have ten persons that were on the Ambulance because of the delay, almost three hours; out of the ten persons we have three that have died. We have seven more on the Ambulance and we don’t know what will happen to them in the next hour,” he said tears almost rolling down his cheeks.
Ross said he is frustrated that the coordination between the health centers is poor. “What got me confused is that I don’t know the level of coordination between the health workers. Redemption is the holding center and if Redemption sends us to bring patients to a facility, it means there should be some communication between them,” he said.
“This morning the supervisor Mr. Tarplah told us that there was a space here that could contain ten persons, so we came, brought the ten persons but the nurses said no space. It looks bad to see people dying on the Ambulance.”
There were patients lined up in front of the facility with the relatives who had accompanied them. Some patients were lying on the floor. A girl about ten years old reclined right before the gate and could only move when a truck full of dead bodies was about to exit the compound. She too was too weak to stand and there was no one to help.
Relief for patients
The opening of the 120-bed facility seems to be a relief to patients who have been languishing before the gates of the various treatment centers like the JFK one with no space to treat them. Already, Bropleh told FrontPageAfrica two hours later that he had made several trips to the facility with about 14 patients and all were inside the facility.
“I’m at Redemption Hospital now,” he said via mobile phone. This is my third trip and all my patients are inside.” Bropleh sounded relieved as though a heavy burden has been lifted off his shoulders.
Tolbert Nyenswah, head of the Ebola Case Management unit at the ministry of health echoed the feelings of the government about the opening of the center. He said the government and the health ministry has been looking forward to the opening of the facility to help in the fight against the deadly Ebola virus.
“Today, we are opening a state of the art Ebola treatment center in Liberia at the Island Clinic. This center is among six that we are opening in Liberia but this is one of the best,” he said.
“It will be among 17 centers that we have in our plan to open and treat Ebola disease patients in our country. Treatment units are not the solution to the problem; it is just about 25 to30 percent of solving the problem.”
The man responsible for Liberia’s finances, Finance Minister Amara Konneh has projected over three hundred Million United States dollars to fight the deadly disease. He said the international community has to swing its promises into actions to buttress the government’s efforts to fight the disease.
“The amount of money needed to fight this disease is too much. As of yesterday, we are projecting about 375 Million Dollars in order for us to fight this disease across Liberia,” he said.
“That money is not in our coffers. The government 100% financed the one that we are about to open today. The government can do more, but it will require a robust international response.I know commitments have been made, we will just like to use every opportunity we get both privately and publicly, to call on our international partners to move with speed from commitment to cash.”
He thanked Liberia’s partners, including the World Bank, the African Development Bank, the United States Agency for International Development, the United Nations for the early response so far; but said the response is not yet adequate and they need to move faster, for Liberia to be able to build the 17 ETUs that have been earmarked to deal with this disease.
The WHO supported government of Liberia initiative has already seen the movement of patients from communities in the center before the sun set on Sunday evening. Health officials are sounding optimistic and hoping for the best in the response in the next few weeks to come.
“We have to use other innovative means, especially with an outbreak that is affecting lots of people in urban areas that make this outbreak unprecedented,” said Nyenswah. “We are increasing our laboratory capacity to have about three functional labs. By the weekend we should be having about six functional labs in the country.”
Mr. Sam Bropleh, an Ambulance driver of the First Responders owned by Rep. Saah Joseph said he had been waiting with patients in the vehicle at the facility. Bropleh was frustrated that his patients could not get in as the formalities of an opening ceremony attended by senior government officials were still on. The facility comes as a relief to a health system that has been overwhelmed by the deadly Ebola outbreak since March this year.
Patients dying for lack of space
At many of the available facilities that had been opened before this one, patients were turned away for lack of space. On Saturday, in one of the two Ambulances carrying ten persons, there were three dead bodies of suspected Ebola patients. A mother and her two children died while waiting for help at the John F. Kennedy Ebola Treatment Unit, the former Cholera Unit. Health workers refused to take the patients in on time because they said there was no space at the facility.
Three members of a single family sat upright in the Ambulance but they were dead. The woman believed to be in her late thirties had her ten-year-old son’s head on her lap and the other son thirteen years old was sitting up in the Ambulance near the other two, but they were all dead. It was a pathetic sight and William Ross driver of the First Responders Ambulance was dismayed.
“This morning we left the Redemption Hospital for JFK. We have ten persons that were on the Ambulance because of the delay, almost three hours; out of the ten persons we have three that have died. We have seven more on the Ambulance and we don’t know what will happen to them in the next hour,” he said tears almost rolling down his cheeks.
Ross said he is frustrated that the coordination between the health centers is poor. “What got me confused is that I don’t know the level of coordination between the health workers. Redemption is the holding center and if Redemption sends us to bring patients to a facility, it means there should be some communication between them,” he said.
“This morning the supervisor Mr. Tarplah told us that there was a space here that could contain ten persons, so we came, brought the ten persons but the nurses said no space. It looks bad to see people dying on the Ambulance.”
There were patients lined up in front of the facility with the relatives who had accompanied them. Some patients were lying on the floor. A girl about ten years old reclined right before the gate and could only move when a truck full of dead bodies was about to exit the compound. She too was too weak to stand and there was no one to help.
Relief for patients
The opening of the 120-bed facility seems to be a relief to patients who have been languishing before the gates of the various treatment centers like the JFK one with no space to treat them. Already, Bropleh told FrontPageAfrica two hours later that he had made several trips to the facility with about 14 patients and all were inside the facility.
“I’m at Redemption Hospital now,” he said via mobile phone. This is my third trip and all my patients are inside.” Bropleh sounded relieved as though a heavy burden has been lifted off his shoulders.
Tolbert Nyenswah, head of the Ebola Case Management unit at the ministry of health echoed the feelings of the government about the opening of the center. He said the government and the health ministry has been looking forward to the opening of the facility to help in the fight against the deadly Ebola virus.
“Today, we are opening a state of the art Ebola treatment center in Liberia at the Island Clinic. This center is among six that we are opening in Liberia but this is one of the best,” he said.
“It will be among 17 centers that we have in our plan to open and treat Ebola disease patients in our country. Treatment units are not the solution to the problem; it is just about 25 to30 percent of solving the problem.”
The man responsible for Liberia’s finances, Finance Minister Amara Konneh has projected over three hundred Million United States dollars to fight the deadly disease. He said the international community has to swing its promises into actions to buttress the government’s efforts to fight the disease.
“The amount of money needed to fight this disease is too much. As of yesterday, we are projecting about 375 Million Dollars in order for us to fight this disease across Liberia,” he said.
“That money is not in our coffers. The government 100% financed the one that we are about to open today. The government can do more, but it will require a robust international response.I know commitments have been made, we will just like to use every opportunity we get both privately and publicly, to call on our international partners to move with speed from commitment to cash.”
He thanked Liberia’s partners, including the World Bank, the African Development Bank, the United States Agency for International Development, the United Nations for the early response so far; but said the response is not yet adequate and they need to move faster, for Liberia to be able to build the 17 ETUs that have been earmarked to deal with this disease.
The WHO supported government of Liberia initiative has already seen the movement of patients from communities in the center before the sun set on Sunday evening. Health officials are sounding optimistic and hoping for the best in the response in the next few weeks to come.
“We have to use other innovative means, especially with an outbreak that is affecting lots of people in urban areas that make this outbreak unprecedented,” said Nyenswah. “We are increasing our laboratory capacity to have about three functional labs. By the weekend we should be having about six functional labs in the country.”
