Monrovia -Jan 10-TNR: Veteran Liberian journalist and publisher of Liberia's leading Newspaper, frontpageafrica, Rodney D. Sieh has called on President-elect, Joseph N. Boakai not to appoint a Medical Doctor as Minister of Health.
Mr. Sieh wants the incoming President to appoint someone who is an administrator to head the Ministry of Health and Social Welfare.
According to him, a Minister of Health who is also a good administrator will effectively manage the affairs of the health sector unlike a medical doctor who is a technical person in administering medication including surgery at the various hospitals.
Speaking Tuesday, January 9, 2024, on OK FM, the Liberian journalist said one of the factors that affected the health sector was due to previous presidents appointing medical doctors as Ministers of Health who are not administrators.
He asserted that medical doctors who have been Ministers of Health could not address those administrative issues because it was not their area to focus on those logistical and administrative duties.
Journalist Sieh predated that if the Boakai administration appoints a medical doctor as Minister of Health including the John F. Kennedy Memorial Hospital as Administrator, the health sector will experience those same constraints that have undermined the productivity of the health sector.
However, this newspaper has established that former President Charles McArthur Ghankay Taylor appointed Dr. Peter Coleman as Minister of Health and Social Welfare at the time. Former President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf also appointed the late Dr. Walter Gwenigale as Minister of Health and Dr. Bernice Dahn as Minister respectively all Medical Doctors.
Additionally, President George Weah came in and also appointed Dr. Wilhemina S. Jallah to serve as the Minister of Health.
As Liberians await President-elect, Joseph Boakai's new appointment, Journalist Sieh has urged the incoming President to appoint an administrator as the new Minister of Health.
