The Medical Clinics

Maar Primary Healthcare Center

Maar Health Clinic in South Sudan
doctor taking care of patient in South Sudan

SSHCO was established in the United States as a 501(c)3 organization with the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) in 2008. The SSHCO board members began raising funds and awareness of building a health clinic in Maar. After reaching out to generous donors and communities with influential friends from North Sudan, Egypt, and Kuwait, SSHCO was able to construct an $800,000 clinic. SSHCO officially began working in South Sudan in 2012.

Since its creation, the medical clinic has provided new levels of health care to the people of Maar and the surrounding area for the first time. The clinic has provided hundreds of people with a better life. The focus is maternal and child healthcare in a facility where mothers deliver their babies safely with proper medicines and equipment on hand. The Maar medical clinic is a Primary Health Care Center (PHCC).

Currently, SSHCO is still running its Maar Medical Clinic in Jonglei State, and on September 23, 2020, SSHCO was one of the first to provide health services to the Mongalla displacement camp of 120,000 in Central Equatoria State (CES). SSHCO has provided health services to the host communities (Bari and Mundari) and the IDPs from Jonglei State. At one time, SSHCO was managing three mobile medical clinics with tents donated by UNICEF in response to the situation in Mongalla. From January 1, 2021, to the present SSHCO has seen 15,000 patients utilizing our mobile medical clinics. Out of 15,000 patients, 5,000 were children under the age of five and 10,000 were children ages 5 and over.

Mongalla Medical Clinic

patients waiting at the clinic Mangalla
patients waiting at mobile clinic tent in Mangalla
patients sitting at the mobile clinic in Mangalla

5 Essential Facts About Healthcare in South Sudan

1. Healthcare in South Sudan is in recovery mode. The Sudanese Civil War created personnel shortages and destroyed infrastructure. South Sudan has just one physician per 65,574 individuals and one midwife per 39,088 population individuals.

Overall, South Sudan reports just one-tenth of the number of medical doctors and nurses at medical clinics in comparison to countries such as Kenya.

medical clinic

2. Inequitable distribution of healthcare workers at a medical clinics exists among the states of South Sudan. For example, the state of Central Equatoria has the highest number of healthcare workers at a medical clinic out of all of South Sudan’s provinces. There is also an urban-rural divide, with more resources existing in urban areas despite the majority of the population living in rural areas.

Meanwhile, the situation in northern regions is particularly difficult due to their widespread devastation during the Sudanese Civil War.

medical clinic staff and patients at SSHCO clinic

 

3. South Sudan lacks a federal retention policy for healthcare professionals. Within the healthcare field, the country suffers from a high turnover of personnel. Poor health, insufficient workforce management, low wages and a general lack of proper supervision all contribute to burnout and rotation of healthcare professionals.

Moreover, no formal system for the regulation of healthcare workers exists at the state level. On the federal level, there is no legal framework in place to guide critically important midwifery practices.

SSHCO healthcare staff

 

 

4. South Sudan has an unusually high number of physical disabilities in its population. As the result of both the lingering effects of war and an inadequate healthcare system, an estimated 50,000 individuals suffer from some form of severe physical disability in
South Sudan.

patients at South Sudan Healthcare clinic

5. Preventable conditions plague South Sudan. Nearly 75% of all child deaths in South Sudan are due to preventable conditions such as diarrhea, malaria and pneumonia. The prevalence of these and other deadly conditions are major factors in South Sudan’s high infant mortality rates, with 96 infant deaths per 1,000 births.

In fact, South Sudan has some of the worst health outcome indicators globally. Maternal mortality ratio stands
at 789 per 100,000 live births, whereas neonatal and under-five mortality rates are 39.3 and 99.2, per
1000 live births respectively (2014). A significant disparity in health status across socio-demographic
factors and geographical location is well documented.

 

information source Borngenprogect.org