Published on : 16/04/2022 – 08:01
A drama that has caused an uproar in Senegal since the beginning of the month. A young woman regarding to give birth died in Louga hospital in the north of the country. He was refused a caesarean section because it was not scheduled that day. Beyond the emotion, this affair creates controversy around the failures of the Senegalese health system and in particular those concerning women…
This is yet another scandal that has aroused great emotion in Senegal and has triggered an immediate mobilization on the part of citizens, and women citizens in particular, who see in it new proof of physical or moral violence once morest women in health structures, often treated with little benevolence at the time of childbirth, therefore precisely during a particular moment of vulnerability, risk and dependence.
On social networks, thousands of people continue to speak out regarding this death. preventable in the words used by the Senegalese Minister of Health, who had to call a press conference. The scandal has indeed gone back to the presidency of the Republic. The director of the hospital concerned was dismissed. A collective called “Patients in Danger” was formed in a few days by Senegalese citizens with the aim of challenging the State on the need to guarantee access to appropriate and quality care for the population and particularly pregnant women…
RFI: as we have seen, following the preventable death of this young pregnant woman, as the Minister of Health acknowledged, citizen mobilization in Senegal was strong. But more generally, these problems of care within public health services concern a large part of the countries in the region. For you, States must undertake profound reforms…
Yes quite. The signal given to populations by these dysfunctions is disastrous. We must go far beyond the denunciation of the admittedly sometimes scandalous behavior of caregivers, doctors, nurses, midwives, or caregivers. It is necessary to examine the chain of responsibility which goes from the highest level of political decision-making, the one where the budgetary allocations allocated to health are decided in particular, up to the level of the personnel in direct contact with the patients.
A few weeks ago, during an online roundtable by Wathi, we discussed the various explanatory factors for failures in the functioning of health structures. And what emerged clearly from these exchanges was the need to provide institutional responses that involve an in-depth reorganization of health structures, on the basis of a priority that would finally be given to the quality of services offered to patients, answers that must also go through changes in the schools and universities that provide training for health personnel.
You we had spoken to this branch regarding the petition launched by Wathi calling for the strengthening of health systems with recommendations concerning precisely the reception of patients, professional ethics and investment in human resources…
Absolutely. In the online petitionalways open for signatures, we call on the rulers and elected officials of West African countries to announce immediate measures aimed at clarifying the responsibility of the directors of public health establishments in the event of serious shortcomings in the operation of these establishments that are detrimental to users, and at putting ethics, listening and empathy “. We also call for the establishment of mechanisms allowing users to report serious cases of culpable negligence in health structures.
This would make it possible to grasp the extent of the scourge. We also believe that it is necessary to make public on an updated website the statistical data on the medical personnel available in all the regions and thus encourage the monitoring by the citizens of the efforts to reduce inequalities in access to health services. More than ever, the mobilization of citizens will be decisive in obtaining decent public services. And the smartphone and social networks are, in this register, powerful and useful tools.
