It is disappointing to note that the free health care facility at the Princess Christian Maternity Hospital (PCMH), locally called Cottage, is being seriously undermined by some unscrupulous health workers, principally the nurses at the antenatal care unit of the hospital.<\/p>\n
Report reaching SEM speaks of unethical conduct on the part of the nurses who sell their services to pregnant women, lactating mothers and under-5s. Sources say instead of providing the services free of cost, the nurses will instead demand a fee for every treatment meant for the intended beneficiaries.<\/p>\n
When confronted with the allegation of charging patients for every treatment they give to their patients, a woman simply called Nurse Patricia at the Immunization Centre told SEM that the money they receive from these patients is what she referred to as \u2018ajo\u2019. She denied demanding money but added she leaves home very early in the morning to attend to patients in time. \u201cSometimes I don\u2019t eat anything before leaving my house. So it\u2019s just small ajo I ask from them for me to eat something,\u201d Nurse Patricia explained.<\/p>\n
However, a pregnant woman who has gone through the ordeal in the hands of the nurses told SEM that the nurses do not cajole the patients before they part with their money but instead force them to do so.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf you don\u2019t give them money they will not immunize you,\u201d the woman said, adding \u201cif you don\u2019t pay you will not get the marklate. They do not care to know your status, that is, whether you have money or not.\u201d<\/p>\n
She also spoke of the embarrassment and humiliation the nurses subject them to each time they turn up at the hospital for routine vaccination. \u201cThey do not only compel us to give them money but they also specify the amount of \u2018ajo\u2019 one should give them,\u201d the pregnant woman lamented. \u201cThey don\u2019t accept anything below Le1,000,\u201d she added, saying \u201cIf you give them Le500 coin they will throw it at your face.\u201d<\/p>\n
Sources close to\u00a0PCMH disclosed that the \u2018ajo\u2019 giving has resulted into serious confrontation between the nurses on the one hand and the free health care beneficiaries.<\/p>\n
A pregnant woman, Mary Tamba, recalled her first visit for antenatal care at the PCMH. \u201cI have to pay money at every table I passed through that day,\u201d she explained to SEM.\u00a0\u00a0 She said at the laboratory where they do blood or other specimen tests, the story is equally a sad one.<\/p>\n
\u00a0\u201cIf you don\u2019t arrive there before 7 a.m., be sure that you will not get treated that day,\u201d she said. Mary said the nurses make sure they create a situation whereby they can extort money from the poor.<\/p>\n
She said the collection of \u201cajo\u201d at\u00a0PCMH is doing more harm than good to the free healthcare programme initiated by His Excellency, the President. \u201cThis state of affairs at PCMH require the full attention of the President, the Minister of Health and the Health for All Coalition for swift action to stop this disgraceful act by some of our nurses,\u201d she pleaded.<\/p>\n
Stay with Sierra Express Media, for your trusted place in news!<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n It is disappointing to note that the free health care facility at the Princess Christian Maternity Hospital (PCMH), locally called Cottage, is being seriously undermined […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":75801,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[671,10],"tags":[2592,3181,15208,1210,1055,3555],"class_list":["post-54136","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured","category-health","tag-cottage-hospital","tag-free-health-care","tag-nurse-patricia","tag-pcmh","tag-president-ernest-bai-koroma","tag-princess-christian-maternity-hospital"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sierraexpressmedia.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54136","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sierraexpressmedia.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sierraexpressmedia.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sierraexpressmedia.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sierraexpressmedia.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=54136"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sierraexpressmedia.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54136\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sierraexpressmedia.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/75801"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sierraexpressmedia.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=54136"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sierraexpressmedia.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=54136"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sierraexpressmedia.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=54136"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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