23 January 2019
Taheramo Health Clinic already condemned as unsuitable for health services but still having to be used.
In an article published in today’s Solomon Star newspaper the lone, dedicated, Registered Nurse of the Taheramo area health clinic on Ulawa Island, Judith Rose Ahukeni, said “avoidable deaths can only be avoided if we have proper health and medical facilities on the island of Ulawa.”
She went on to say, “Any serious outbreaks would be disastrous taking into account the state of health services on the island.”
“The island has three other clinics but they are also structurally deteriorated as a result of negligence,” she reportedly added.
She added that the health centre has one outpatient building constructed of locally sourced materials, a building for drug storages, a specially built structure for Malaria and two staff houses.
“However, these buildings are deteriorating and urgently in need of renovation or better still, replaced to cater for the growing health need of the people of Ulawa,” Ms Rose stressed.
She said that the medical infrastructure on the island is slowly falling apart and if nothing is done in the near future, health services will suffer.
When asked by a Solomon Star reporter who was responsible to address these issues Ms Rose responded by saying that their provincial government should be the first to take attend to the plight of their clinic.
Ms Rose said that earlier this year, the senior health inspector at Kirakira visited the health centre and condemned the building as unsuitable for health service provisions.
The state of the Taheramo area health clinic and health services generally on the island of Ulawa simply add to the many similar situations in the country, especially in the Western Province, and it is to be hoped that a new government, following the general election in March, will give priority to addressing the whole question of rural health care without delay.
Access to proper health care is a fundamental human right and successive Solomon Island Governments have regrettably been in breach of the responsibility to comply with the human rights obligations of the people in terms of health care in many of the provincial rural areas of the country.
Source: Solomon Star newspaper.
Yours sincerely
Frank Short
