By Donstance Koroma
The Senior Medical Officer (SMO) of Njala hospital, Dr. Mohamed Koker has lauded the National Malaria Control Programme (NMCP) for coming to the aid of the hospital with malaria test kits and drugs following an application that was granted by the programme.
Dr. Mohamed Koker disclosed that the consignment included medicines for all categories of patients and would treat over five hundred patients free of cost. He expressed his determination to help rejuvenate the Njala hospital and laboratory that had been in hibernation since the eleven-year-long civil conflict that officially ended in February 2002.
Dr. Koker disclosed that since his appointment as SMO, the hospital has attracted many imminent government officials including the Minister of Local Government and Rural Development, Tamba John Lamina and the Director of National Minerals Agency.
He furthered that during the rehabilitation of the hospital, he created the Maternity and Children’s Unit for antenatal, postnatal, pediatrics and labour respectively.
“If we take care of our women and children, we are giving our country a future,” Dr. Koker averred, adding that the hospital receives about ten to fifteen cases of malarial on a weekly basis and are mostly children from poor families.
He however assured that malaria drugs received would help treat patients suffering from the disease.
“Personally, I am helping parents with money on a weekly basis to buy medicines,” Dr. Koker said.
Meanwhile, the SMO has disclosed that drugs are in short supply for the Free Healthcare Unit of the hospital.
The pharmacy and laboratory facilities of the hospital, he said, also lack drugs and equipment to carry out tests, noting that his determination is to upgrade the hospital to a referral, research and treatment hospital.
He called on the First Lady, Mrs. Fatima Bio to pay a personal visit to the Children’s Unit to help boost it. The SMO also pleaded with the government to increase the budget sealing on health.
Dr. Mohamed Koker studied in the then Soviet Union and qualified as a medical doctor. He worked as a Doctor in England for 18 years but resigned last December to contribute to national development.
Dr. Mohamed Koker, who has spent ten years as Emergency Doctor Specialist, was the only UK based Doctor that visited Sierra Leone during the outbreak of the Ebola Virus Disease (EVD).