By Akol Madut Ngong
South Sudan is still at seven per ten thousand populations to achieve the universal health coverage, this came during the graduation ceremony organized by Juba Health Science Institute.
The Director General for training and professional development in the national ministry of health Dr Loi Thon said that South Sudan is at seven per ten thousand populations to achieve the ideals of universal health coverage.
“We are not anywhere close to the ideals, we need to achieve universal coverage, the World Health Organisation (WHO) talks of at least you need 40 skill mixes for every 10,000 population, you need at least 44 to 45 of skills mixes,” Dr Loi said.
“We in South Sudan, we are at 7 per 10,000 population, we are very far from the ideals number needed for us to achieve universal coverage. “We have to double our efforts to train more numbers so that we have enough nurses, enough medical officers, and enough midwives for us to achieve universal health coverage” Dr Loi stated.
The training has just started, you have not yet completed “if you choose to be a medical personnel, then the definition is that you have started to be a student for the rest of your life,” he stressed.
“So for you to be a successful medical personnel, you have to start on the daily bases, the world is changing, Science is changing, and every day, there are new discoveries especially in the medical sciences, and there is no way that you are going to keep yourself updated unless you continue to be a student for the rest of your life,” Dr Loi further explained.
He added that Continue to see the patients, continue to consult the books, access the information on the internet, online and continue to develop yourself further and further so that you become a qualified and competent health personnel for your community and the country at large.
Dr. Loi highlighted that “the cadres we are celebrating today, are very important cadres, more than 60% of what happen in the health sector is run by these cadres, response to emergencies like Ebola and previously COVID-19 is also run by these cadres, so without them, the universal health coverage will not be a reality, and to achieve the universal health coverage, we need more health cadres to be train and to be available to our people.