Health Minister Diouf Sar was relieved of his duties on Thursday, according to a government official, and has been replaced by a senior ministry official, Marie Khemse Ngom Ndiye. Statement,
Sir was attending the World Health Assembly conference in Geneva when a fire broke out at Mamae Abdul Aziz Saye Dabakh Hospital late on Wednesday. He shortened his visit and returned to Senegal on Thursday by the Ministry of Health Told,
Prior to his dismissal, Sarr told local radio station RFM that the fire in Tivouen Hospital’s neonatal unit was caused by an electrical short circuit.
Senegal has been rocked by several recent health care scandals, including a fire last year in the neonatal unit of a hospital in Lingur in the country’s north. Four children killed in fire at Health Ministry’s Lingur Hospital said last april,
The death of a pregnant woman was reported in April, who was refused to have a caesarean Three midwives also created a ruckus in the country.
Senegal’s minister for regional planning and local government, Sheikh Bamba Diya, expressed outrage, urging the country’s hospitals to scrutinize their health systems, which he described as a “repetition of the tragedy”.
“I am shocked by the horrific and unacceptable death of 11 newborn babies in Tiwaune. The recurrence of tragedies in our hospitals reminds us of our obligation to thoroughly review the quality of service in our hospitals. My deepest condolences to the families,” he said. in one twitter post Thursday.
‘Hospital is now the place of death’
On social media, some Senegalese have accused the hospital of repeated fires. Absence of smoke detectors and functional firefighters in the health facilities of the country.
A Twitter user, Masali Samba, wrote: “… our hospitals have become places of death. Too much carelessness, indifference, carelessness!… Isn’t it a danger to go to the hospital today?”
Another Twitter user, mauride_b, questioned Why were the newborns killed in the latest hospital fire not rescued at the time of the fire?
“11 kids. How could this happen? How could they leave those kids in the fire? Why didn’t they get them out when there was a fire? Were emergency services alerted in time? Are there no emergency firefighters in these premises? Is? Was…? No, but that’s unacceptable!”
SAIL has declared three days of national mourning from Thursday during which the flag will remain at half-mast. Statement Told the Presidency.
The president also launched an investigation into the cause of the fire.