Health officials in the defunct Fashoda State, Upper Nile, say seven Primary Health Care Centers (PHCC) were closed in October after an international NGO, IMA World Health, stopped operations there due to budgetary constraints.
Ulau Along, the director-general of health told Radio Tamazuj that the closure of the health centers in Fashoda and Manyo has left many citizens in need of health care.
"We had IMA here running the health centers but they closed and stopped working here at the end of last month because of lack of funds and budget. They were running seven health centers in the areas of Manyo and Fashoda which don’t have support and funds to operate from since last month,” he said.
Along claimed that World Vision had promised to take IMA's role in funding the centers but that is yet to happen.
He said the local government has no funds or budget to run the health centers and appealed to the health ministry in Juba to help by setting up a referral hospital in the vast area.
“I appeal to the health ministry in Juba to find and dispatch organizations to come and work here. I also ask them to upgrade the health center in Kodok to a hospital because there is no hospital in this whole area of Fashoda and Manyo,” Along said.
He further appealed to the national health ministry to urgently dispatch medicines in the area currently grappling with increased cases of malaria and severe flu due to the rains.
“We have a lot of diseases like malaria and severe flues. We have tablets for malaria but medicines from the central government in Juba have not reached us. We get some medicines from health NGOs that work in Upper Nile State like Cordaid and others,” Along said.
He said the area faces difficulties in transporting referral cases to Malakal and that patients have in the past died due to delays.