Acting Transitional National Legislative Assembly (TNLA) Chief Whip Peter Francis Lomude has slammed the health authorities for allowing unqualified people to operate as doctors in South Sudan.
Lomude, who is a member of the South Sudan Opposition Alliance (SSOA), raised the issue in the House on Tuesday, saying South Sudanese lives were at a risk because of the many foreign quacks setting up hospitals.
The lawmaker claimed he had recorded several cases of misdiagnosis, with the most recent one in Atlabara residential area where a woman went to an Eritreans’ hospital complaining of fever, but was given wrong injections and died.
“My information is in relation to the number of foreign doctors who are operating in this country. The day before yesterday, we had a relative who complained of fever but when she went to one of the clinics owned by some Eritreans in Atlabara, she was injected without a checkup and she died,” Lomude said.
“Madam Speaker, this House represents the people of South Sudan, and it is important that issues of public concern be raised in order to get solutions. That was not the only case, it has been happening to a number of South Sudanese, not only in Juba,” he said.
Lomude called on the august House to execute its mandate of protecting the citizens, by ensuring they were not used as guinea pigs by unqualified foreign practitioners.
The lawmaker said he was aware the committee on health and the medical council had shut some suspect private clinics owned by foreigners, but urged that a lasting solution be found.
He further called on the August House to summon the Minister for Health and the health council to explain why unqualified people were allowed to operate as doctors.