Honiara : 17 November 2016
Letter to the Editor, Island Sun Newspaper.
This staggering amount of money, announced in a Press Release from the Australian High Commission, today, has been provided to support our health services since 2012 to-date.
Let me say from the onset of this letter how very much I am appreciative of this very generous and considerate help from Australia.
The High Commission press release gave further good news because it highlighted the Australian Government’s help in providing health care in our rural and remote parts of the Solomon Islands.
It mentioned important improvements in the delivery of medicines and especially indicated how pharmacy stocks have increased for the benefit of the sick and in-patients at the Kirakira Hospital.
I will quote from the particular press release.
“Providing health care in rural and remote parts of the Solomon Islands is not without challenges, but the staff of Kirakira Hospital and Kaonasugu clinic in North Makira, with support of the Australian Government, are taking the challenge head-on.
“We see many patients a day some through our hospital and clinics with all manner of ailments, from headaches, diabetes, and pregnancy complications, right through to life-threatening infections,” said John Tahara, Director of Nursing for Makira Ulawa Province.
“Fortunately we have well-trained, passionate staff, particularly nurses, that work tirelessly on the front line of health service delivery every day.
“Being so far away from Honiara makes it difficult sometimes to ensure we have all the right medicines and supplies, but with the support of the National Pharmacy Services Division we’ve managed to ensure that we have full coverage of essential supplies most of the time.”
The Australian Government in partnership with the Ministry of Health and Medical Services (MHMS), supports the provision of essential medical supplies to clinics, such as Kaonasugu, throughout Solomon Islands.
On a recent monitoring visit to Makira, Counsellor of Health, Education and Gender Equality at the Australian High Commission, Ms Melissa Stutsel, took the opportunity to visit the Kirakira Hospital and Kaonasugu clinic to see how Australia’s support is helping the delivery of health services in rural Solomon Islands.
“It is clear that there are challenges for the health system in rural areas over and above those experienced in Honiara,” Ms Stutsel said, “but the hard working staff in the clinics I visited do an outstanding job with what they have.”
“Having assessed the pharmaceutical stores of two clinics, we found that over 100 percent of essential medicines are available in the hospital, and over 80 per cent were available in the clinic, which though not perfect, shows that MHMS is making very good progress in this area.”
Thank you again, Australia, and to the MHMS for caring to the health needs in the Solomon Islands.
