26 August 2019
Hospital beds for the NRH delayed but a plea is made for a wheel chair for a severely handicapped child.
The hospital beds that were released by a hospital in New Zealand and intended to be delivered to the Solomon Islands were electrically operated and the National Referral Hospital advised my partner charity in Auckland, ‘Take My Hands’ that they would be unsuitable for use at the NRH.
The situation is now alternative hydraulic beds need to be sourced and this could take some time given TMH is dependent on hospitals in New Zealand taking in new beds and disposing of the old ones.
Naturally, the news comes as something of a disappointment but hopefully I will have better news to report soon.
The hospital beds on order would have been freighted in a container with about 30 wheel chairs for the NRH and consequently those wheel chair deliveries are on hold for the time being.
In the meantime, I have been asked whether a wheel chair could be sourced in the Solomon Islands, or one that might be bought and air lifted to Honiara from either New Zealand or Australia.
The plea for a wheel chair came to me from a close relative of a young boy in the Solomon Islands who is said to be virtually unable to move around due to a severe birth defect.
I was given full details of the young child’s incapacity and the details are too graphic and tragic to put into print.
If some kind person or organization or business enterprise could assist in getting a wheel chair for the disabled child to be moved around, please could you contact me via the link on my website – www.solomonislandsinfocus.com and I will be pleased to put you in touch with the uncle of the child.
Yours sincerely
Frank Short
