By: Aminata Sesay
Hon. Bernadette Wuyatta Songa, Member of Parliament for Kailahun District and Chairperson of the Parliamentary Health Committee, has accused District Medical Officers (DMOs) across Sierra Leone of soliciting bribes from patients in government hospitals.
Speaking at a parliamentary engagement held in Committee Room One on Tuesday, August 19, 2025, Hon. Songa claimed that some DMOs are demanding payments ranging from NLe 50 to NLe 60 before patients are allowed to see a doctor. She described the practice as “extortionate” and particularly harmful to the country’s most vulnerable citizens.
She cited Pujehun and Moyamba Government Hospitals as examples and alleged that the problem is widespread across Sierra Leone’s public health sector.
In addition, Hon. Songa condemned the practice of charging women NLe 300 to give birth in government hospitals a service that should be free under the national Free Health Care Initiative. “This fee is an unnecessary burden on already struggling families,” she said.
She also accused several facilities, including Rokupa Government Hospital, of failing to keep proper records of Free Health Care medical supplies received from the Ministry of Health and Sanitation (MoHS). She expressed deep concern over what she described as a total lack of accountability in the system.
Hon. Songa called on hospital administrators and matrons to take urgent steps toward reform, urging them to promote transparency and improve service delivery to ensure better healthcare outcomes for citizens.
Addressing DMOs directly, she urged them to “change their mentality” and uphold their leadership responsibilities with integrity. She stressed that the purpose of the engagement was not to shame health officials but to hold them accountable and remind them of their duties to the public.
The MP also criticized nurses for clocking in and out outside of their scheduled shift times, calling such behavior “dishonest to the highest degree.”
She raised additional concerns about poor documentation practices, particularly the absence of patient care plan sheets. “This is dangerous, especially in the event of a patient’s death,” she warned.
Concluding her remarks, Hon. Songa accused some hospital clerks of embezzling funds and pledged to summon them before Parliament to explain their roles in what she described as the mismanagement of public hospitals.