Published: September 3, 2026
HARPER, Maryland County – Patients in Liberia’s southeast who once had to travel to Monrovia to find out what was wrong inside them can now be diagnosed in Harper, after Partners In Health Liberia handed James Jenkins Dossen Memorial Hospital US$71,000 worth of equipment, including the county’s first endoscope.
The handover took place Aug. 28 at a ceremony attended by the Maryland County Health Team, hospital authorities and Partners In Health Liberia. The donation covers 23 patient monitors, two ultrasound machines, an endoscope and infusion pumps.
The monitors change the arithmetic in the emergency room, where Maryland County Health Officer Dr. Methodius George said staff had been working with a single machine for a large number of patients. The new units track blood pressure, pulse, respiration and oxygen saturation continuously at the bedside, work that nurses had been doing by hand, moving from patient to patient.
“When you talk about healthcare strengthening, there are a lot of things involved. You cannot say we have staff and then say your health system is strengthened. You need equipment to work with,” George said.
The endoscope closes a gap that had been sending sick people up the coast. Dr. Sarah Anyango, interim director of clinical and medical education services at Partners In Health Liberia, said patients with suspected internal bleeding and other gastrointestinal conditions had been referred to Monrovia because JJ Dossen could not look inside them.
“Imagine when they are already sick, they have to make that long journey because we do not have the equipment,” she said.
The ultrasound machines take on diagnostic work that previously required patients to leave the county, George said, and the infusion pumps allow fluids and medication to be given at controlled rates.
JJ Dossen is the referral hospital for Maryland County and draws patients from Grand Kru, Grand Gedeh, River Gee and Sinoe, as well as from across the border in Côte d’Ivoire. George said the hospital has about 20 doctors, including specialists, and that most cases are now managed in the county rather than referred to Monrovia, apart from those needing highly specialized care. The hospital’s laboratory holds a three-star rating under African laboratory quality standards.
Anyango said about 90 percent of Partners In Health Liberia’s operations are in Maryland County, where it works with the Ministry of Health and the county health team on staffing, facility space, equipment and social support for patients. The equipment list came out of an assessment the organization carried out with JJ Dossen’s leadership, which identified where the hospital’s diagnostic and critical care capacity was thinnest.
The organization said the handover is not the end of the engagement. Its biomedical engineering team will run routine checks and maintenance, and frontline health workers will be trained on the machines before they are deployed to their units. The endoscope goes to the surgical department and theater.
Dr. Shadrach K. Gono, medical director of JJ Dossen, said the monitors will strengthen continuous observation of vital signs and the ultrasound machines will widen what the hospital can diagnose, while the endoscope adds internal examination capacity and the infusion pumps improve the accuracy and safety of drug administration.
Anyango said some of the equipment will go to Pleebo Health Center.
Anyango thanked the county health team and hospital leadership, saying Partners In Health Liberia remains committed to working with the Ministry of Health on health delivery in the county.
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