The Senegalese president ordered an audit of the national health system after recognizing his “obsolescence”
Le Monde with AFP
The eleven babies who died in a fire Wednesday evening at the Tivaouane public hospital in western Senegal were buried on Sunday, May 29, in the cemetery of this city, its mayor told AFP , Demba Diop Sy. According to the will of families, the eleven babies were buried at the same ceremony. The burial took place at “camera”, told AFP the councilor.
“We sympathize with the pain of families, underlined Demba Diop Sy. Today, it is Mother’s Day in Senegal and there are eleven mothers who have lost their child”, adding that this drama underlines ” You need more attention in the health field, in favor of families and children “. The families affected by this tragedy began this Sunday to perceive aid, said the mayor while “the investigation follows its course normally”.
What happened Wednesday evening at Mame Abdou Aziz Sy Dabakh hospital remains to be established. The testimonies report a fire quickly spreading in the neonatal unit, and the staff and users helpless to save children. An electric short circuit would be at the origin of the disaster.
Accusations of negligence have shot. But the mayor assured that two caregivers were in the service at the time of the facts. The new neonatalogy service, co-financed by a private company, had been delivered at the end of 2021 with security equipment and training of fire alerts, he said.
“Tragedy space”
Friday, Senegalese President Macky Sall recognized the “obsolescence” of the Senegal health system and ordered an audit of the neonatality services so that the public hospital is no longer “a space of tragedy”.
This drama is indeed the latest to highlight the deficiencies of the health system of this poor country. In one year, it is at least the third event with the death of children in the public hospital to upset opinion. Apart from calls for sanctions, he aroused in part of the opinion of the accusations of passivity on the part of the authorities. On Thursday, Abdoulaye Diouf Sarr was dismissed by the Head of State and replaced as Minister of Health and Social Action by Doctor Marie Khemesse Ngom Ndiaye, hitherto Director General of Public Health
The Senegalese thus moved the death of four newborns in the fire of a neonatalogy service at Linguère hospital in April 2021, and the tragic fate of a pregnant woman, Astou Sokhna, Died with her baby on the 1 er last April after what his loved ones describe as a long agony and a denial of care at the hospital in Louga.
The young woman, nine months pregnant, had waited for about twenty hours the cesarean who was to give birth to her child. In vain. Three midwives had been sentenced by a Senegalese court on May 11, six months suspended prison sentence for “non-assistance to person in danger”.