{"id":7523,"date":"2021-02-28T18:09:42","date_gmt":"2021-02-28T18:09:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sooha.org\/en\/?p=7523"},"modified":"2021-03-25T04:23:53","modified_gmt":"2021-03-25T04:23:53","slug":"bay-regional-hospital-85-years-of-helping-sws-residents-with-healthcare","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sooha.org\/en\/2021\/02\/28\/bay-regional-hospital-85-years-of-helping-sws-residents-with-healthcare\/","title":{"rendered":"Bay regional hospital: 85 years of helping SWS residents with healthcare"},"content":{"rendered":"

BAIDOA —<\/strong> Quiet and calm are rare at the Bay Regional Hospital(BRH) in the city of Baidoa.<\/p>\n

\n

On any given day, the usual hustle and bustle associated with a major hospital feature throughout its grounds, as could be expected for the main referral hospital in Somalia\u2019s South West State.<\/p>\n

Inside, with nurses assisting, doctors are doing their rounds of the wards, checking in on the progress of patients.<\/p>\n

“I came from\u00a0Wajid\u00a0district; it took me three days to get here. I have been in this hospital for eight days taking drugs prescribed by the doctors. Finally, this morning Dr. Aden cut off the toe on my leg that was giving me so much trouble,\u201d says Ibrahim Ali\u00a0Isak, a 70-year-old patient recovering from treatment for a long-suffering ailment. The\u00a0Wajid\u00a0district is some 95\u00a0kilometres\u00a0north-west of\u00a0Baidoa.<\/p>\n

Outside, families and friends loiter in the hospital\u2019s gardens while waiting to be able to see their loved ones.<\/p>\n

“I came from\u00a0Usley. My daughter was constantly vomiting and had a high fever. I knew this hospital treats children well, including with the provision of three meals per day. I have been in this ward for the last ten days. Thanks to Allah, my daughter is now doing well,\u201d says Fadumo Hassan Moalim, the mother of two-year-old Amina Osman, recovering in the pediatric ward. The village of\u00a0Usley\u00a0is some 70\u00a0kilometres\u00a0north of\u00a0Baidoa.<\/p>\n

Ibrahim Ali\u00a0Isak\u00a0and Amina Osman are just some of the 20,000 people treated at the hospital each year.<\/p>\n

Located in the heart of\u00a0Baidoa\u00a0city, in South West State\u2019s Bay region, the Bay Regional Hospital is a public health institution which provides free 24\/7 health care service to residents of the state\u2019s three regions as well as the\u00a0neighbouring\u00a0region of Gedo in the Federal Member State of\u00a0Jubaland.<\/p>\n

The hospital\u00a0is run\u00a0by the South West State administration, with the support of international aid agencies. It has eight\u00a0departments which\u00a0include surgery, maternity care, pediatric health, nutrition, out-patient treatment and a laboratory. There are 18 doctors on staff, out of a total staff number of 285, and it has 400 beds for patients.<\/p>\n

Much progress\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

The hospital has come a long way in its 85 years of existence.<\/p>\n

“Bay Regional Hospital was built in 1936. It was part of the infrastructure built by the Italian colonial administration. It has covered a big gap by reducing the need for travelling to Mogadishu for medication and treatment,\u201d says\u00a0Abdifatah\u00a0Ibrahim\u00a0Hashi, who has served as the hospital\u2019s director since 2015.<\/p>\n

Mr.\u00a0Hashi\u00a0has an affinity for the hospital, having been born there in 1981. Before his\u00a0appointment\u00a0he had worked with local and international humanitarian agencies, including the United Nations Mine Action Service (UNMAS). As a child, he was witness to some of the upheaval the hospital went through.<\/p>\n

Like many other institutions, the hospital was affected by the collapse of Somalia\u2019s central government in 1991 and, between 1992-1999,\u00a0control of it changed hands several times.<\/p>\n

“When the civil war broke out,\u00a0Baidoa\u2019s\u00a0main health\u00a0centre\u00a0was seized by warring factions in different times. People began to seek treatment in Mogadishu and other\u00a0neighbouring\u00a0capital cities, like Nairobi and Addis Ababa,\u201d says Mr.\u00a0Hashi.<\/p>\n

The murder in 1997 of a\u00a0M\u00e9decins\u00a0Sans\u00a0Fronti\u00e8res\u00a0(MSF) doctor working\u00a0there\u00a0presaged tougher times. All support from the United Nations and international non-governmental organizations\u00a0was halted.<\/p>\n

Things started to change in 2007.\u202f The Italian non-governmental organization\u00a0Cooperazione\u00a0Internazionale\u00a0(COOPI) stepped in to support the\u00a0hospital, and\u00a0was soon followed\u00a0by other such as the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) and MSF-Holland.<\/p>\n

The renewed support allowed the hospital to rebuild and grow. The current international support from them and other non-governmental organizations includes the provision of medical supplies, staff salaries and new buildings.<\/p>\n

Recently, the hospital premises\u00a0were expanded\u00a0with two new buildings, as well as a waste disposal\u00a0centre\u00a0that helps reduce environmental pollution.\u00a0The new additions were officially opened by South West State\u2019s President\u00a0Abdiaziz\u00a0Hassan Mohamed \u2018Laftagareen\u2019\u00a0in December 2020.<\/p>\n

“MSF has recently built for us two new spacious obstetric and pediatric departments, along with hospital incinerator that can easily crush hospital\u2019s waste materials,\u201d Mr.\u00a0Hashi\u00a0says.<\/p>\n

All of\u00a0these developments have helped the hospital get to where it is today.<\/p>\n

“In 2020, the Bay Regional Hospital received a total of 6,551 people as out-patients, 8,820 people in the emergency care departments and 5,808 people were admitted as in-patients,\u201d says Mr.\u00a0Hashi.<\/p>\n

Dedicated staff\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

In addition to the support of international donors, the hospital administrator pays tribute to the medical staff for the health\u00a0centre\u2019s\u00a0success.<\/p>\n

One of them is Dr. Aden\u00a0Abdikadir\u00a0Noor, a general surgeon at the hospital since 2012.<\/p>\n

Born in\u00a0Baidoa\u00a0in 1985, he attended primary and secondary school in Mogadishu and completed his medical studies at Jilin University in Changchun, China, in 2011.<\/p>\n

“I then came back to Somalia to serve my people,\u201d Dr. Noor says.<\/p>\n

His desire to return and serve his\u00a0countrymen\u00a0and countrywomen stems from his experiences during Somalia\u2019s years of conflict.<\/p>\n

“In 2006, my colleagues and I used to visit Mogadishu hospitals to donate blood. Hospitals were overwhelmed by patients with multiple injuries and fractures caused by fierce fighting between warring sides \u2013 so, what influenced my career choices is pretty clear,\u201d Dr. Noor says.<\/p>\n

The surgeon\u2019s days are long and challenging, often involving hours of delicate surgery, but his motivation to continue remains strong.<\/p>\n

“My day starts with morning ward rounds to review patients\u2019 condition, followed by the operating theatre to perform planned surgery interventions, then I go to the recovery wards to evaluate patients\u2019 condition. As doctors, we sometimes work longer hours when there are explosions or deadly battles \u2013 but I am happy and, indeed, it makes my day whenever I come across recovered patients.\u201d<\/p>\n

Source: UNSOM\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 Origin: View original<\/span><\/a><\/span><\/strong><\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

BAIDOA — Quiet and calm are rare at the Bay Regional Hospital(BRH) in the city of Baidoa. On any given day, the usual hustle and bustle associated with a major hospital feature throughout its grounds, as could be expected for the main referral hospital in Somalia\u2019s South West State. Inside, with nurses assisting, doctors are …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":7524,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8,1,2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7523","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","","category-health-cluster","category-news","category-reports"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sooha.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7523","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sooha.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sooha.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sooha.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sooha.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7523"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/sooha.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7523\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7696,"href":"https:\/\/sooha.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7523\/revisions\/7696"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sooha.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7524"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sooha.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7523"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sooha.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7523"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sooha.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7523"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}