(ERGO) – The upgrading of a small health clinic into a full hospital is saving residents of the coastal town of Bargal, in Somalia’s mountainous northeastern Bari region, from travelling hundreds of kilometres over rough terrain for life-saving medical care.
Hawa Hassan Mohamed, a mother of six, was in labour for three days with her last-born baby as her concerned relatives rallied to raise funds for her to travel to Bosaso, 355 kilometres away from her home in Bargal.
“I was in pain while we were on the road but later I had C-section surgery and gave birth to a baby girl. I wouldn’t have had to go through those challenges if we had had those services in our area,” she said.
That was her second emergency: in 2018, it took her family six days to raise the fare to Bosaso, as she agonised in labour, where eventually she gave birth under surgery to her fifth son.
“When the Bargal hospital opened, I felt so happy,” Hawa told Radio Ergo’s local reporter.
“I take my children there and we get free treatment for whatever we need. Sometimes I remember my situation when the clinic here didn’t offer many services and I know I wouldn’t have gone through the pain that I did if we had the hospital back then.”
Another Bargal resident, Muse Abdirahman Mohamed, said his sister died in childbirth whilst they were desperately trying to get her to a hospital in Bosaso. With poor roads between Bargal and Bosaso, the journey typically takes seven hours and costs $400. Such a journey, especially when it took time to organise, often proved fatal for the patient.
“I know five pregnant women who died on the road while being transported to hospital from here,” Muse said.
The Bargal local and diaspora communities collected $125,000 to develop the hospital, which opened on 26 August. The international NGO, Save the Children, provided some medical equipment.
A member of the hospital building committee, Botan Muse Mohamed, told Radio Ergo they were getting fed up with the deaths of so many people in the town and decided to pull together their resources to build a more advanced hospital.
Bargal hospital has 17 beds for inpatients. On 24 September, the first C-Section surgery was successfully conducted in the facility.
Bargal hospital director, Dr Raqiyo Mohamud Mohamed, said they employ 20 staff and still manage to provide free services for patients. She noted that they cannot offer all the services of a fully-fledged hospital, although they do cover most needs in the area including maternity services and surgery.
