Ganta, Nimba County—The Ganta United Methodist Hospital, along with Esther and Jereline hospitals and the Ganta Rehab Center, is facing imminent collapse due to a significant lack of funding from both the national government and international donors. With financial support cut off completely, normal operations at these health facilities have been severely disrupted. By Franklin Doloquee/Franklindoloquee@ frontpageAfricaonline.
com/0776371515/0886696939 Over one million people in Nimba County, as well as in neighboring regions of Guinea and Ivory Coast, are left in a precarious situation due to the financial challenges faced by the Ganta United Methodist Hospital, the only major private referral hospital in the area. Mr. Paul M.
Guanue, the Human Resource Manager and Acting Administrator of the Ganta United Methodist Hospital, informed Front Page Africa that the hospital has been unable to pay its medical staff for the past three months. While some hospital staff received payment for September, doctors have yet to receive any compensation, a situation he attributes to dwindling financial support from Methodist churches worldwide as well as the local and national government. Historically, the government provided $300,000 in annual financial assistance to the hospital during the administration of former President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf.
However, this amount was slashed to $50,000 during President George Weah’s administration, aggravating the hospital’s financial struggles. M.