By Manyuon Mayen Manyuon, Juba
The Jonglei State’s Health Ministry has suspended operations of about 60 clinics, pharmacies and drugstores in Bor Town over license brawl.
Atong Kuol Manyang, the State Health Minister said the decision was inline with earlier order aimed at screening heath care facilities in Bor Town and its extension areas.
The exercise was geared towards evaluating the capacity of the private health facilities in the State.
“On May 26, the team started their work. They went to some specific facilities especially clinics, drugs and pharmacies to verify their operational licenses,”
“So they managed to get four more clinics that were not part of the previous assessment and they did not have licenses. So I can confirm that sixty (60) pharmacies, clinics and drugstores have been all shutdown in total,” she explained.
In the previous health facilities assessment in Bor, at least 56 health care facilities were discovered to have either no operational licenses or expired ones.
A total of 53 did not completely have licenses but three (3) had expired licenses, beside other four that were discovered later during final verification exercise.
Ms. Manyang said the next step would be only for the closed medical facilities to meet the requirements without retreat.
“The closed health facilities should only meet the requirements. These include ensuring that the people who are going to operate should have medical backgrounds,” she said.
“If the owner does not have that capacity, then the person who is going to be tasked with the responsibility must have certain qualifications but getting license is very paramount,” Ms. Manyang added.
According to the health official, if the proprietors approach the State’s Ministry of Health, they would get the operation documents needed as well as they get other directives accordingly.
She reiterated that “If these people are very serious about their business then they needs to only produce what we need and be ready to continue with their business,”
Ms. Manyang advised the affected facilities to act as soon as possible without violating the order.
“At the end of the day, we are improving the condition of our people, giving them the right treatment and basic services in the right way that we can,”
The health official revealed that any failure to abide by the order would be treated with a legal justification.
The proprietors of the health facilities in Bor reportedly met on Friday last week to discuss the next step following the shutdown.
The screening order was issued last week to verify and inspect the health facilities operations status in Jonglei State.
