By Bida Elly David
The Undersecretary of the National Ministry of Health yesterday said South Sudan lacks specialized doctors in the field of fistula surgery as many patients battled with the health complication.
She disclosed this during the launch of fistula training program organized by the administration of Juba teaching hospital in partnership with UNFPA and AMREF Health Africa being the main donors to the initiative.
Recently, Juba teaching hospital in collaboration with their partners graduated some staff driven from the same training and they became well equipped with the knowledge to undertake fistula surgery.
Despite the fact that medical doctors at the main hospital have been undertaking several trainings, there have been shortages of qualified personnel in the emergency and operation rooms.
Few months ago, number of patients raised much concerns as they struggled for medical attention at the Juba teaching hospital but waited for long without being attended to by the doctors.
Speaking during the program yesterday, Dr. Victoria Anib Majur, the undersecretary of the ministry of health stressed shortage of doctors at the fistula department as there have been continuous fistula cases in the hospital.
She underscored that the hospital has been aided by qualified doctors from the church based organizations whether being at the national or international entity.
She added that the above mentioned organizations have conducted several fistula operations in some parts of the Country to ensure that patients were set free from the painful complication.
“We have been helped by faith based organizations. They have participated in conducting fistula operations in Hai Referendum and also conducting campaigns in Wau but again those ones were just like ‘a drop in the ocean’ because the demand is high,” she underlined.
Anib said the fistula department is a sensitive segment among all departments in the medical units that required qualified, skillful and professional doctors who would carefully conduct physical primary examination on the patients to determine the position of the disease for final stage.
“The fistula management needs specialized doctors and to become a specialist, more training is needed. Despite the fact that we are still doing the training, we still have the challenges because the demand for fistula operations and training is very huge that more trainers need to be committed to conduct the induction for our medical staff in the public hospitals across the Country especially some parts with multiple fistula patients,” she reiterated.