Somalilandsun:The residents of Burao town came out in droves to demonstrate about
exorbitant prices of medical supplies and services. According to
information reaching us the minister of health development Mr.Hassan Ismael
Yusuf who was on a working visit to Burao has turned a deaf ear despite the
residents’ pleas for his intervention.
Many people who had lost their livelihood during the drought that had wiped
out most of their livestock lamented that the public hospital had become
more expensive than private hospital.
A poor mother called Halimo speaking to Star TV said that the clinical
officers, doctors and nurses at the institution were colluding to fleece
them of their money. Medicine that is provided free of charge by
international non-governmental organization is sold to unsuspecting members
of the public.
A man who recently lost all his livestock to drought said “I have no job or
livelihood I’m sick and cannot afford to pay for medicine this is causing
me a lot of distress since these people understand nothing other than
money.”
An elder known as Abdi Madoobe called on the minister to investigate the
hospital which no longer serves the public but has become a business
enterprise for those charged with the care of the sick.
A man who had just arrived from Burao town to transfuse blood to a sick
patient was told that it costs Somaliland Shillings 300,000 to take
specimen of blood. He had no otherwise rather than go back to town. It was
later confirmed the patient who needed the blood died following
bureaucratic handicap of the hospital administrators.
By:Guled Abdi Mahir
