Freetown — Minister of health and sanitation Wednesday announced the supply of modern medical equipment to the Connaught hospital in Freetown.

Dr. Soccoh Kabia said the supply was demonstration of his ministry's commitment to providing quality healthcare delivery services to the people of Sierra Leone.

He said the supply was one of the recent developments his ministry has embarked on to ensure that adequate, reliable and affordable medical services are provided in the country.

Dr. Kabia said the improvement on healthcare delivery services was on his topmost agenda and that government and donor partners are always ready to give amicable support to the health sector.

"There has been a holistic improvement in the health sector especially at the Connaught hospital. We have been able to upgrade the intensive care unit to an acceptable standard. The installation of modern equipment like veterinary, respiratory, cardiatric machines and other equipment shows that government is ready to address health problems in the country," he said.

Care Manager at Connaught hospital Dr. Desmond Olu Black said the improvement of the intensive care unit of the hospital from six bedrooms to ten bedrooms would help greatly as the unit caters for people who are seriously sick.

He said the installation of cardiatric device; sophisticated CT scanner machine, latest Echocardiogram, blood gas analyzer among others is a step in the right direction.

"With these equipment, I am proud to say that Connaught hospital is one of the best in the West Africa Sub-region. The theater is another success area worth to be talked about. It has been refurbished, well equipped for the general public. Similarly, the emergency outpatient has been improved upon," he said.

Dr. Black added that the hospital was able to set up a mobile unit to travel across the country in order to address health problems in remote areas.

He said newly trained doctors preferred working outside the country instead of working for their people.

"There is a huge challenge in dealing with our human resource capacity. Even though we have an institution that is bringing out doctors every year, we are still short of staff because some of our junior doctors look out for greener pastures," he said.