Health authorities in Terekeka County, Central Equatoria State, are struggling to provide adequate care for pregnant women, particularly those experiencing complications during delivery. This is due to the closure of the county hospital’s maternity theatre, which has been forced to shut down because of lack of funding.

Dr. Augustino Awan, a Medical director in Terekeka County hospital, told Classic FM in an exclusive interview that the situation becomes challenging when they receive an expectant woman experiencing complications; then she has to be referred to Juba for intensive care.

However, minor services such as Absolute Neutrophil Count (ANC), are handled at the county hospital. 

“Our main problem is when a pregnant woman wants to deliver but has complications. So, we need to refer this mother up to Juba,” Awan said.

According to him, some of these women come from the rural areas such as Tombek and Lijiang- a far distance from Terekeka County and at the same time need to be referred to Juba.

“If a mother was referred to Terekeka from places such as Tombek in the far North or Lijiang in the far East, and then again referred to Juba, this is due to the closure of our theatre here because there are no funds to support the team,” he disclosed.

The director further revealed that most of the medical support accorded to Terekeka County is mainly by donors such as the United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund (UNICEF), through the national and state governments.

He said besides the challenges in referral, there is also lack of anti-malaria drugs which are normally given to expectant women.

“Secondly, mothers are facing challenges in terms of medicines such as anti-malarial that are supposed to be given to pregnant mothers. We actually run out of essential anti-malaria drugs in the hospital and even the primary health care centers like Tombek and Muni,” he said.

He called the national and state ministries of health to address the issue of maternity theatre and lack of malaria drugs.

Speaking during the second reading of the fiscal year 2024/2025 budget at Transitional Legislative Assembly (TNLA) on November 5, 2024, Peter Aduok, a member of the standing specialized committee on health, attributed the challenges facing health facilities in the country to lack of specialists.

According to Aduok, each state and administrative area is supposed to have at least four specialists in the state hospitals, however, this is not the case.

“We are supposed to have at least four specialists in our state hospitals. That is, specialists in surgery, pediatrics, oxygen, gynaecologists and medicine. This is the least in every state hospital” Aduok said adding, “We do not have it despite having capable people in the field of health.”

The law-maker pointed out that “the current budget does not reflect any scientific variance on the health of the citizens.”

He question, “Why does the government pay for medical schools and give teachers’ salaries to produce new graduates and just throw them into the street.”

He stressed the need for developing a strategy on how to make the budget inclusive of new employment in the country especially in the health sector. 

His sentiments were echoed by Nyayang Lok Riak, a member of the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement (SPLM) representing Jonglei State in the TNLA, where she acknowledged that women are indeed dying in “big numbers” as a result of lack of proper health services.

She said the FY 2024/2025 budget is not gender sensitive because ministries did not allocate better resources to address women-related issues, with emphasis on the health sector where women face challenges during delivery.

“If you read this budget it’s not a gender sensitive budget. And what I mean by gender sensitive budget is that if you go to the Ministry of Health, the Ministry of Gender, and other institutions that are related to women, there is nothing special that has been budgeted for women of South Sudan” Nyayang said.

She added, “An easy example is health care, which is maternity health for women across the country.Our women across South Sudan, in the 79^th counties, deserve to have maternity health care at each county, so that our children are delivered in a safe environment,”

Nyayang called on the government to ensure women’s health is guaranteed in South Sudan for population growth. She claimed that the current South Sudan population will not be the same as that of 2008 as women are mostly dying during child birth.