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The Director of Hospital and Ambulance Services, Ibrahim Foday-Musa, together with the Biomedical Maintenance Coordinator and senior staff of the Directorate, on Tuesday, May 19, 2026, conducted an intensive on-the-spot supervisory visit to several major healthcare facilities across Freetown.
The facilities visited included Jui Chinese Friendship Hospital, Rokupa Government Maternal and Children’s Hospital, Kingharman Government Maternal and Children’s Hospital, Julius Maada Bio Pediatric Centre of Excellence, and Lumley Government Hospital.
The exercise forms part of the Ministry of Health’s ongoing 300 Days of Activism aimed at strengthening healthcare service delivery and improving patient outcomes nationwide.
The supervisory tour focused on key service areas, including maternal and pediatric care, emergency services, laboratory operations, inpatient care, medical equipment functionality, and infrastructure. The team also assessed the availability of essential supplies and commodities, biomedical equipment, human resources, and overall service quality.
During engagements with hospital management teams—including Medical Superintendents, Matrons, Hospital Secretaries, and frontline health workers—participants openly discussed operational challenges affecting service delivery at their respective facilities.
Key challenges identified included delays in emergency response and patient stabilisation, overcrowding in wards, long waiting times, weak referral coordination, limited diagnostic capacity, inadequate space in laboratories and wards, and inconsistent electricity and water supply.
The Directorate also observed malfunctioning laboratory and theatre equipment, weak preventive maintenance systems, shortages of biomedical engineers, and inadequate staffing levels across key medical disciplines. Other concerns included staff fatigue, poor duty compliance, frequent stock-outs of essential medicines and consumables, delayed procurement processes, and gaps in infection prevention and control measures.
Speaking during the visit, Director Ibrahim Foday-Musa emphasized the importance of proactive supervision and direct engagement with frontline workers to better understand operational realities within health facilities.
He assured hospital management teams of the Directorate’s commitment to working with the Ministry of Health to address identified gaps, strengthen accountability systems, improve maintenance of equipment and infrastructure, and enhance the delivery of quality, patient-centred healthcare services across Sierra Leone.
