Margibi County – Deplorable road condition is currently impeding normal health care delivery services for over 12,000 residents of Gibi District in Margibi County, making it almost impossible to access the only clinic in the area. Locals in the area say the situation is hectic for easy referral.
The collapsed of a culvert along the road that leads from Worhn to Kakata has made it impossible to refer patients in critical medical condition to other hospitals as the only option of plying the route is by ridding motorbike that also seemed to be risky due to the deplorable state of the road.
The culvert which crumpled on Saturday August 20, 2016 links the mountainous Gibi District to the rest of the county has made it difficult for the health and economic needs of the people.
Residents in the area are worried over the situation as it’s impeding their free movement especially making it difficult for their livelihood. Getting their farm produce to the market in order to earn some money to cater to the health, education and social needs of their family is also being hampered.
Weedor Siazay, a registered midwives assigned at the Worhn clinic said the current condition of the road is worrisome especially making it difficult to refer patient in maternal complication as the ambulance will not be able to reached the health facility if nothing is done to speedily addressed the condition of the culvert.
“I am very worried anytime we can have maternal complication and I don’t any pregnant died here because of the road condition because since I took over in 2014 we have not had any maternal death at this clinic,” Madam Siazay said.
She, at the same time, noted that pregnant women giving birth at home is still prevalent in the area due to the long distances from the health facility as it would take eight to twelve hours walking by foot to reach the clinic and most often they give birth along the way while trying to reach the facility.
Madam Siazay said many of the home delivery resulted into death of either the mother or the newborn child but its most often to report to the health authorities as issue of such nature is being treated by traditional herbalists.
She added that all efforts made by them to stop home delivery has proven futile as nothing has been done by the district local authorities to curb the situation despite a recent mandate from the county health team that barred home delivery due to the recent high maternal deaths in the first half of 2016.
Margibi county superintendent John Zubay Buway, in a recent interview with reporters decry the deplorable condition of the feeder roads in the county but sadly noted that an effort to purchase earth moving equipment to maintained the road was thwarted due to government’s procurement bureaucracy.
Report By: Emmanuel Tophic Degleh