Kebba Manneh, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Kanifing General Hospital, has confirmed the breakdown of the hospital only function X-Ray machine leading to incursion of high cost of service on the poor and vulnerable patients from within the Kanifing Municipality and West Coast Region.
Speaking in an exclusive interview with this reporter in his office on Friday, he said that the hospital’s only X-Ray broke down 24th July, 2021.
“It’s true that our X-ray Machine has breakdown since 24th July, this is a machine that we have been using for very long time now. Unfortunately, this is a portable machine that cannot do heavy duty job for the hospital because of the high demand for X-Ray from the patients,” CEO Manneh confirmed.
He added: “Our main X-Ray Machine unfortunately, breakdown for a very long time and since then we has been looking for its spare parts but we cannot have it. However, we have managed to hire the services of a Nigerian Bio-medical engineer who has already made assessment of all our machines including the X-Ray Machine and by next week this machine will be repair.”
According to him, efforts are also on course to repair the industrial X-Ray Machine that has been down for a very long time to be repair too, adding that such machines are very expensive at the market and the hospital cannot do it alone to buy industrial X-Ray machine for the hospital.
CEO Manneh stressed that the Ministry of Health is well aware of the difficulties the hospital is currently going through, revealing that the matter have been reported to the Ministry on many occasions without solutions.
He said the breaking down of the X-Ray Machine is not only affecting the patients but equally the hospital administration, noting that X-Ray Machine is one of the main source of income for the hospital and its breaking down has affected the operations of the hospital gravely.
However, one official of the hospital (name withheld) who spoke with this reporter has stated that the X-Ray Machine breaks down during the period of the last Eidul Adha prayers, adding that patients reporting to the hospital are usually referred to the Edward Francis Teaching Hospital (EFSTH) or to private clinics.
“We are in a very sorry situations, our only mobile X-Ray machine has been down since last Tobaski prayers. The situation is not helping our patients especially those who cannot afford the high cost of services at private clinic,” an insider told our reporter.
According her, the lowest cost patients can paid for an X-Ray in public hospitals including Serrekunda General Hospital is equivalent to four hundred dalasi (D400), noting that similar services at private clinic go up to D1000 to D4000 or even more for delicate scanning.
Another anonymous staff also confirmed the breakdown of the X-Ray Machine, disclosed that most patients visiting the hospital for X-Ray are left dumbfounded regarding situation due to financial reasons, saying that most patients who cannot afford the high cost of services are left with no choice but to go home.
“A lot of patients visiting this hospital are poor and vulnerable, they cannot pay the services at private clinics and the only sanctuary is Serrekunda General Hospital. I want to call on the hospital administration to do all efforts to fix the situation as quickly as possible because it is not only affecting the patients but equally the hospital in terms of resource mobilization,” another insider emphasized.
He added: “It’s very sad that the administration is not doing its job as expected because a big hospital like Serrekunda is relying on a mobile X-Ray Machine. We should past this stage, serious hospitals are doing with state of the earth modern X-Ray station but not mobile X-Ray.”
He called on the management of the hospital to give less focus to buying expensive vehicles for administrative staff and focus on securing working materials for the hospital.
He pointed out that the breaking down of the machine had made the works of the doctors at the hospital ineffective as they have to sit for hours to wait for patients to return from private clinic with results before they can work.