The government hospital in Pariang County of Unity State is not employing enough nurses, according to a doctor working at the county hospital.

Dr. Sam Ibrahim, a doctor working with CARE at the Pariang County Hospital, told Radio Tamazuj that the hospital’s challenges include shortages of nurses and fuel.

“The number of staff is a big problem. Now we only have four nurses,” he said, explaining that for a 26-bed hospital they should have 12 nurses and not four.

He called on the government and the UN Refugee Agency to lend more support to bring nurses to the hospital. He said the shortage of fuel is also problem: “We have vaccines here that need the electricity to be working.”

Dr. Ibrahim said the hospital was very full over the last three months but recently the general health situation in the area was improving.  

According to a statement by CARE earlier this year, the Pariang hospital is one of 40 health centres that the relief organization is supporting in South Sudan. In the statement the organization referred to the staff shortage at the Pariang hospital.

“The challenge is that we don’t have enough staff,” Dr. Sam was quoted as saying in an article published in August 2014 on the CARE website. “We have two doctors, six nurses and only one trained midwife.”