Dr. Makur Out, Dr. Mayen In: The position comes and goes, but colleagueship should remain intact
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By Francis M. Malwal, Houston, Texas, USA
Thursday, June 11, 2020 (PW) — The medical practice has recently changed significantly from a one-person show to a multidisciplinary team that supports each other like a building block. Therefore, it doesn’t matter how smart you are; you still need your colleagues in the hospital across the country. Of course,the undersecretary in the ministry of health is a senior position, but without mutual relationship with junior staff and colleagues, he would become like a general without soldiers.
The former undersecretary Dr. Makur Korim has failed to understand the significance of teamwork, and without the support of his colleagues in the medical field, he exposedhimself. As a result of that, he was fired without a single strike. So I hope his successor would forge good relationships with his colleagues, something I don’t doubt embedded in Dr. Mayen Achiek, who I know quite well when I was in the department of pharmacology in the College of Medicine.
Furthermore, the position comes and goes, but colleagueship will remain as long as we are still alive, and there is no reason he should have to treat it out. The success of the undersecretary happens when healthcare employees are motivated and happy because there is someone whom they trust will protect their interests.
So wages and equipment and tools necessary for them to do their job more effectively are secure. Hence, the healthcare workers will work diligently and produce good indicators which will be credited to the undersecretary and the minister. However, there is no reward with investment.
I hesitate to congratulate government appointees when they get into office. Although I don’t doubt your competency, I would prefer to reverse my congratulatory message to the day you passed the enormous challenges ahead of you, beginning from the current COVID-19 pandemic to the way the government operates in South Sudan. If you were appointed as undersecretary of health in the United Kingdom, I wouldn’t hesitate to congratulate you because I believe that in the U.K you will be given all the necessary resources for you to succeed.
In contrast, South Sudan assigned you to the position without the budget and tools and, above all, strong political supports that you need to fight corruption anchored deeply in the healthcare institutions. So they assigned you, and they want the non-government organization ( NGOs) to provide the budget. I have never seen a single health institution of any country built by NGOs.
After all, success in the health sector depends on the performance of the whole government. So if you are competent but the leadership of the country is unable to control the economy, then everything you will be doing will not go anywhere. I think you have experienced it as the college of medicine’s dean.
So before people start bombarding you with their list, I would like to draw your attention to the main problem of healthcare in South Sudan. The reason I want to do it early is that in South Sudan, the people who lobbied for you are hard to please. I called them bad recruiters who later will come with a list of their companies, requesting medical referral or recommending particular NGOs assigning to their home town, etc.
If you follow their directive, you will get lost, and if you reject their demand, they live in the president’s ears. They will lobby to get you out and assign a good buddy who abides and fulfills their desires for corruption.so my boss,you are between two edges of the sword, and to succeed, you need to figure out how to overcome them.
So the main problem of the health sector in South Sudan is the delusion called free health care services. It needs to be abolished and replaced with government-run health insurance. The government must enact an insurance law that will compulsorily require government employees as well as the private sector employees to sign up for coverage.
In conclusion, This policy will save the government much money from medical referral abroad, transportation of coffins from abroad to South Sudan, just to mention a few. Above all, it will save many lives. Forging a strong relationship with colleagues and other health care workers is critical for your success.
The NGOs’ role is supplementary to government efforts. The president needs to understand that you need tools to fight the anchored corruption in the healthcare sectors.
The author, Francis M. Malwal (Pharm. Pharm. FPGEC), is a South Sudanese pharmacist based in Houston, Texas, USA. He is the Former Head Department of Pharmacology, University of Juba, College of Medicine, and Chairman of Establishment Committee, African’s National Party. He can be reached via his email: E.mail.francismalwal@gmail.com
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