Closed and dilapidated clinics in Ogooué-Lolo, Gabon, finds health director
By the AFREEQUE newsroom, based on AGP Gabon
The Centre-East regional health director, Thierry Bayito Mokoko, found the Iboundji medical centre dilapidated and all clinics in Offoué-Onoye and along the Koulamoutou-Popa road closed. Despite an envelope of 7 billion CFA francs allocated to Ogooué-Lolo province, according to the Gabonese Press Agency, the Popa health centre is in very poor condition.
The Centre-East regional health director, Thierry Bayito Mokoko, has found clinics closed and dilapidated in Ogooué-Lolo, a province in central-eastern Gabon, according to the Gabonese Press Agency (AGP). For the past few days he has been on an inspection tour of facilities that the Minister of Health, Prof. Elsa Joséphine Nkana-Bivigou, had been unable to visit for lack of time during her recent stay.
In the department of Offoué-Onoye, he noted the dilapidated state of the Iboundji medical centre, despite the rehabilitation of a few buildings thanks to the 7 billion CFA franc envelope granted to the province by the President of the Transition, Brice Clotaire Oligui Nguema. All the clinics visited in this department are closed, as are those along the Koulamoutou-Popa road. The minister had made a similar, even alarming, finding in Dienga, Pana, Matsatsa and Lastourville.
In Popa, in the department of Lolo-Bouenguidi, isolation has caused a massive exodus: only 12 inhabitants still live there. The nurse assigned to the health centre devotes much of his activity to mobile care in neighbouring villages. Thierry Bayito Mokoko noted the absence of an operating budget for this centre and asked the Ministry of Health for an allocation, however modest.
He also called for improvement of the road network, whose poor condition, in his view, contributes to rural exodus and the closure of clinics. Added to this are the shortage of health workers and the lack of suitable technical facilities in most of the structures visited.
