Published on : 14/04/2022 – 21:35
Astou Sokhna, a young woman nine months pregnant, died in hospital in Louga (regarding 200 km north of Dakar). His family denounces negligence “, and seized justice. Facing the press this Thursday, April 14, the Minister of Health spoke of a ” preventable maternal death “. The director of the hospital was removed from his post on Wednesday. For its part, a citizen collective denounces “ a structural problem of the health system.
With our correspondent in Dakar, Charlotte Idrac
Three missions were dispatched this week to Louga by the Ministry of Health, to take stock of the circumstances of the death, and to locate the responsibilities. Minister Abdoulaye Diouf Sarr delivered his conclusions: the death of Astou Sokhna might have been avoided, according to the Minister of Health, through ” a good risk assessment and optimal monitoring during his stay in the maternity ward ».
But for Abdoulaye Diouf Sarr, this situation “ painful » « does not reflect the current state of the healthcare system “, who has known, he says, ” significant progress in recent years, particularly with the drop in maternal mortality. That being so, there remains efforts to be made to humanize the country’s health structures “, adds the minister, ” with a focus on patient care ».
At the very moment when the press conference was held at the Ministry of Health, the citizen collective “Patients in danger” – just created – also faced journalists, to ask for light on this affair, but also to denounce generalized dysfunctions. in health structures.
Reception, infrastructure, equipment, monitoring…“ There are millions of Astou Sokhna in Senegal “according to the collective, which refuses measures of” dusting “. After the planned march in Louga tomorrow, a sit-in is announced in Dakar on April 23.
Ghaëls Babacar Mbaye is spokesperson for “Patients in danger”. She returns to the extent of this affair and the expectations of the collective.
This is a situation that prompted Senegalese citizens to set up this collective last Tuesday in order to launch a digital campaign on social networks which ultimately generated a lot of testimonies. We see that almost all Senegalese have been victims of medical negligence or health personnel who cannot live up to their expectations.
Ghaëls Babacar Mbaye, spokesperson for “Patients in Danger”