Vétusté, spécialistes aux abonnés absents, pots-de-vin pour un brancard : la crise rise sanitaire sans fin à l'Hôpital Régional de Saint-Louis
At the Saint-Louis Regional Hospital, complaints are mounting. What should be a place of healing now seems to be turning into a real ordeal for many patients and their companions. A lack of specialist doctors, poor communication, and deplorable reception conditions: the unease is profound and visible in every corridor of the facility (Report).
Patients left to their own devices
For many patients, getting treatment at the Saint-Louis regional hospital is an ordeal. Between the interminable wait for specialists and the near-constant absence of on-call doctors, those accompanying patients often feel abandoned.
“To tell you the truth, the Saint-Louis Regional Hospital is the worst I’ve ever seen. It’s not a hospital, it’s a death trap,” a caregiver exclaimed, speaking on condition of anonymity. “We suffer terribly here. Even getting a doctor’s attention about a patient is difficult, especially at night. Sometimes we spend hours waiting while the patient suffers without a single doctor showing up.”
Between slow response times and questionable practices, the unease is profound.
The woman, in her forties, continued her testimony by recounting another harrowing experience she had in the emergency department:
“My father was to be transferred to the surgery department for an operation. We were asked to be ready at 10 a.m., which we did. But then, nothing more. We were told to wait for the stretcher-bearer. We waited until 1 p.m., while my father was suffering terribly,” she testifies.
According to her, it was another companion who explained to her the "unofficial procedure" to speed up the patient's transfer.
"He told me that here, to get a stretcher-bearer to come quickly, you have to give him something: 1000 or 2000 francs. Otherwise, you can wait for hours. I ended up doing it, and the stretcher-bearer came almost immediately," she confides, indignantly.
The woman complains: "In a normal country, this is unacceptable! How can you charge for the transfer of a sick person in a public hospital?" she exclaims, also denouncing the lack of stretcher bearers and the indifference of the staff.
She also denounces a glaring lack of humanity and professionalism at the reception desk. "The reception staff speak rudely to people. They are very undisciplined. Yet, those accompanying sick people need support, not aggression."
A chronic shortage of specialists
Beyond the staff's behavior, the real problem remains the lack of specialist doctors. According to the national vice-president of SOS Consommateurs, El-Hadji Ciré Balley Diallo, in charge of education, health and social affairs, Senegal needs to fill a gap of nearly 950 specialist doctors, particularly in oncology, neurosurgery and anesthesiology and intensive care.
This reality is striking the three-hundred-year-old city where several patients say they have to wait days, or even weeks, for a specialist to leave Dakar to come and consult at the regional hospital in Saint-Louis.
“I come from Rosso Béthio. I have been here for a week with my sister. We are being asked to wait for a specialist who is supposed to come from Dakar. This is unacceptable for a region like Saint-Louis,” laments another patient’s companion.
Added to this is the absenteeism and lateness of some health workers who operate in private clinics, where patients are often referred.
Intolerable shortcomings in the nighttime care of patients
The situation deteriorates even further at night at the Saint-Louis regional hospital.
Several caregivers denounce the behavior of some guards, deemed indifferent and unresponsive to the distress of the patients.
“Those who are on duty at night, I’m not generalizing, but some are very lazy and heartless. When you call them to relieve a patient’s pain or simply to stop a completed infusion, they answer ‘we’re coming,’ but they take hours to arrive,” says another caregiver, this time a resident of the city of Saint-Louis.
He denounces an attitude he considers inhumane and contrary to medical ethics: "A doctor is first and foremost a person of heart, of humanism, ready to save lives, not to neglect them. This profession is sacred, and some of them must be aware of that."
For this man of Saint-Louisian origin, the regional hospital must absolutely correct this bad reputation which is growing with each testimonial.
“Not everyone can be wrong. We live here. We know the reality in this hospital, so much so that if we get sick, we’re afraid to go there, and that’s a shame for our city of Saint-Louis, renowned for its hospitality,” he concluded bitterly.
This situation is causing a dramatic overcrowding. Indeed, the regional hospital is the only referral facility for the entire northern region of Senegal, receiving patients from Saint-Louis, Podor, Richard-Toll, Rosso, Ndioum, among others.
With limited capacity, the flow far exceeds the available human and material resources.
Difficult working conditions for medical staff
A doctor encountered on site, who requested anonymity, confirmed the difficult situation:
“We work in extremely difficult conditions. There are insufficient staff, a lack of equipment, and morale is low. Some of us haven't even been recruited into the civil service yet, despite years of experience. The system is slow, files are gathering dust in drawers, while there's talk of a shortage of specialist doctors. It's paradoxical.”
The doctor claims to continue his mission solely out of passion: "If we continue to wear the white coat, it is because we have sworn an oath to save lives. But the reality on the ground is discouraging. The State must act before the system collapses completely."
Reception, contested and unsuitable environment
Material problems compound the human shortage. The hospital suffers from advanced disrepair: dilapidated rooms, obsolete equipment, and a noisy environment due to ongoing renovations in some departments.
"How can a sick person rest when hammers and drills are blaring all day long? What's happening here is something else," another exasperated caregiver wondered.
Located in the middle of a neighborhood surrounded by schools, the regional hospital is constantly exposed to noise, increasing patient stress.
A heartfelt plea for urgent reforms
Faced with this situation, the residents of Saint-Louis are demanding the construction of a new, more modern hospital capable of meeting the region's needs. They are also calling on the authorities to recruit more specialist doctors and to improve staff training.
"The authorities need to come and see what's happening here. This is not worthy of a city like Saint-Louis. We just want the sick to be treated with respect and professionalism, and that's what we lack here at the Saint-Louis Regional Hospital," pleads a citizen encountered at the hospital exit.
The case of Saint-Louis illustrates the failings of a healthcare system in crisis. Between a lack of human resources, outdated infrastructure, and patient distress, regional hospitals are struggling to fulfill their primary mission of providing care.
While awaiting a response from the Ministry of Health, the sick and their families continue to suffer in silence.
And for many, the Saint-Louis regional hospital remains a place of fear more than hope.
Commentaires (10)
Plutôt que de passer l’année à débattre sans fin de questions politiques, l’État comme les populations gagneraient à adopter une approche plus pragmatique, en se concentrant sur les enjeux essentiels tels que la santé et l’éducation.
Les mauvaises nominations au Ministère de la santé ne feront qu agraver les problèmes.
Et le PM à pris quelques jours de congé pour préparer un meeting.
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