By: NyimaSillah
National Assembly Member for Banjul North who doubled as and the vice-chairperson of the Health Committee, has urged the Ministry of Health to adhere to the law with regard to the issue of Acute Kidney Injury(AKI) which has claimed lives of over seventy children last year.
In an interview with The Voice, Hon. Modou Lamin B. Bah said the ministry should get back to the committee after sending them a report to enable the committee to report back to the parliament as what has agreed between the ministry and the committee.
Hon. Bah said when the parliament called for an extraordinary session the committee was given an assignment by the NA to conduct an investigation and on the 20th of December 2022, they laid their report and it was adopted with an amendment.
He pointed out that, the standing order has clearly indicated that if a report is laid, the office of the clerk should ensure that the report is send to the relevant stakeholders which should be reported at least before 30 day.
However, he added, making follow-ups for the implementation is part of their duty but affirmed that they have no power to implement but rather just to monitor the entire process, saying AKI is not a regular thing and must ensure proper implementation of the process is done.
According to him, some of the key recommendations made on the report were, construction of a lab, to ensure the MCA is the mainstream holder as far as drug importation is concerned, and registration of medicines among others.
“We all have the intention that we don’t want to see such menace happening in this country so in doing so, we must put in place proper mechanisms and make sure that all the available resources are in place so that the required job will be done and on time,” Hon Bah said.
