Monrovia — The newly elected political leader of the Movement for Democracy and Reconstruction (MDR) Senator Jeremiah Koung (MDR-Nimba County) is recommending that the Government of Liberia outsource pharmacies and diagnostic services to competent private entities for quality and available services.
According to Sen. Jeremiah Koung, the demand from the public for the government to always provide these services at public health facilities will be lessened by outsourcing and the constraints faced government to always provide these would be shifted.
Sen. Jeremiah Koung: "The main problems in hospitals are not doctors and nurses they are diagnostic and drugs. My taught is that the government of Liberia through the ministry of health should outsource services including diagnostic and drugs with individuals capable of providing such service."
In the agreement that would be signed between the Government and the entity, he said, the government will regulate the price that will make it affordable for the people below the economic belt. He believes by doing, this government will now concentrate on fuel and train more doctors.
He also recommended that the House of Senate and Representatives work collaboratively and move to various communities and visit public schools to vet teachers assigned to those schools by establishing whether these teachers on government payroll are in the various counties of assignment or only go to those counties when there is an audit been done.
His suggestion came from the background of the many complaints they (lawmakers) receive from people claiming to be government teachers but not receiving their monthly pay.
For his part, Senator Zoe Pennue of Grand Gedeh County believes nothing can be done to help the situation because, according to him, most of the top doctors and nurses at the country's biggest referral hospital, the John F. Kennedy Hospital (JFK) own private pharmacies and he believes most of the support intended for the JFK is diverted to personal use.
"All of the head doctors at JFK own most of the pharmacies in Liberia. There is no way to get results when you sit in a top government position and your wife is head of JFK the power has overshadowed everyone there is nothing moving," Sen. Pennue said.
