The number of patients at South Sudan’s Juba Military Hospital has fallen below 700 as a result of reduction in conflict in many parts of the country, according to a hospital official.
The hospital was formerly treating over 1000 patients in crowded wards but now the influx of wounded soldiers has slowed and fewer soldiers are seen these days in the wards as many of the more lightly wounded patients have been discharged.
“The hospital had huge number of patients brought from conflict-hit areas during the crisis. It has now reduced. It use to be more than 1000 but as of now it has reduced to below 700 as every time they recover and they are returned to their units,” said an SPLA medical official.
War-wounded with disabilities that prevent them from rejoining their units are sent home after recovery, he said, while those who recover from lighter injuries are sent back to their units.
“We have those with broken legs still with us but those patients who have minor injuries are waiting with us too so that we can send them to their units. Those who have disability we send them to the ten states,” the official explained.
It is not clear whether South Sudan’s army has kept official statistics of the number of soldiers wounded in fighting since the outbreak of civil war. Radio Tamazuj previously obtained unofficial estimates from SPLA medical officials that approximately 10,000 soldiers were wounded in less than a year of fighting, from January to October 2014.
File photo: Wounded soldiers lie in bed at the general military hospital Juba, 28 December 2013. (Reuters/)
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