Eastern Equatoria Legislative Assembly on Monday recommended the state government to allocate funds to the Ministry of Health in order to improve the sector and recruit trained staff.
The state legislators made the recommendation during the second reading of the 2010 Budget at the Parliament, Radio Emmanuel reported.
Eastern Equatoria State Legislators said that insufficient funding led to a decline in the provision of health services and lack of trained personnel in many health facilities including Torit Civil Hospital.
Arungole Rhino Loremo, the Chairman of the Parliamentary development, Economic, Finance and Public Accounts Committee, presented the recommendations to the House.
Mr. Loremo added that lack of funding had caused Torit Civil hospital to deteriorate to the extent that it does not have qualified doctors and nurses.
He wondered about the quality of service patients get at Torit Civil hospital from untrained secondary school students attending to the sick.
Eastern Equatoria State Minister for health, Florence Night Otto, lamented that her ministry is badly affected by lack of technical personnel.
Ms. Otto, however, defended the presence of the students serving at the hospital.
She said they are under training and perform well to supplement the few trained staff.
Ms. Otto challenged the government to allocate sufficient funds for the sector, cautioning that the situation may worsen if nobody pays urgent attention to the health sector.
The health department in Eastern Equatoria State lacks adequate structures and periodically runs short of drugs.