Connaught hospital needs support - MSF

A team from MSF that visited Freetown on Monday reported that there had been 150 wounded people admitted to Connaught hospital over the previous six days, an MSF spokeswoman in Paris told IRIN today. The vast majority were civilians and 90 percent were war-wounded, of whom many had been mutilated, she said. The MSF team confirmed that the hospital was functional, with water and electricity, but there was only one surgeon and he had no anaesthetic supplies, she said. MSF was ready to resume its work at Connaught hospital, but ECOMOG had only given the team a one-day stay permit, the spokeswoman said, adding that the NGO would also require guaranteed access to its communications equipment before returning to Freetown.