Tragic conditions surround the patients in Al-Shaab Hospital in Khartoum, with the increase in hospital visits, which sometimes reach a thousand cases per day. 19 thousand patients per month are faced with the fact that there are only approximately 300 beds available in Al-Shaab Hospital, leaving most of them to receive treatment in the hospital yard.
Ahmed Fadl Al-Mawla, who accompanied a heart patient to the hospital, complained about the lack of specialists for his patient, who had been lying in Al-Shaab Hospital in intensive care for nearly two days without health care. In an exclusive interview with IHA, he said, “We have brought our patient who has been admitted to intensive care, and we hope that the hospital administration or those in charge of the matter will find a specialist.” He added, “We are in need of a specialist! Other than a specialist, we don’t need anything. If they have treatment or not, we don’t have a problem, we don’t mind that, but we need a specialist.”
A miserable reality in Al-Shaab Hospital, with the death of 100 patients per month, 29 of whom are short-stay patients and 39 are long-stay patients, while the largest number represents patients referred from other hospitals. The reality of the increase in patient deaths was justified by the hospital administration as a normal rate by comparing it to the number of hospital visits, which amounts to 18 thousand per month.
During an interview with the hospital’s General Manager, Dr. Alnimair Gibril, he justified the decision to treat patients in the hospital yard by saying, “This is the full capacity of Al-Shaab Hospital. If a patient comes to you, do you close the door and tell him that my beds are full? I mean, I’m carrying a patient who has a lack of oxygen and he will die. Will you lay him down on the ground and give him oxygen, or will you tell him, ‘No, no. I’m afraid that a television channel will come and take pictures of you’?”
Dr. Gibril further added that the hospital cannot control its emergencies because they are special cases, as it is the only hospital with central cardiac emergencies. He called for the government to increase the emergency capacity to address the increasing number of patients.
In another interview, an expert in hospital affairs, Dr. Aladdin Naqdallah, and a former official at the Ministry of Health, confirmed the poor conditions in the hospitals of the capital, Khartoum, in general, after the coup d’état, following the government’s reduction of subsidies for hospitals from approximately 200 million pounds.
“I’m not surprised by the poor conditions in Al-Shaab Hospital. It is a reflection of the situation in the country’s healthcare system. Hospitals are struggling to provide adequate care to patients due to a lack of resources and support from the government,” Dr. Naqdallah said.
The hospital environment is also in poor condition, especially the emergency room, which, according to the hospital administration, does not have a good ventilation system, but it contains holes in the ceiling for ventilation, which caused a number of workers to suffer from asthma. The environment of patients’ escorts is also bad, as dozens of escorts are lying on the ground with some patients in the hospital yard under the scorching sun.
Despite attempts to reach officials in the Ministry of Health for comment on the situation, the request was shifted from one office to another for nearly 10 days, without giving any official to speak about the matter. This lack of response from the Ministry of Health raises concerns about the government’s commitment to improving the healthcare system in Sudan.