Liberia is a small country on the West Coast of Africa; it has 15 counties, and 15 county hospitals, which are surrounded by several health centers and clinics (each with about 15-20 beds). County hospitals do not have specialists, and all their surgical procedures are provided by General Doctors\Physicians. Most of these Healthcare Centers do not have doctors and most minor surgical procedures are provided by only nurses or physician assistants. Liberia is a country with a population of about 3.5 million people; and currently has only 3 Liberian Surgeons and no Liberian Anesthesiologist.
The long and brutal civil conflicts affected Liberia greatly, as well as the prolonged regional instability; that, as a result, created hundreds of thousands refugees and internally displaced persons (IDPs). Although the facilitation of the return process is ongoing and still in progress, the pace of repatriation during 2005 was slow as many refugees were awaiting the outcome of the 2005 presidential elections to return home and more are still waiting for help to return. Liberia has since installed and finally inaugurated a new Government in January 2006. The crisis also affected the brain drain of good healthcare professionals, in Liberia.