11 January 2023
Yesterday in a letter to the local SI’s newspaper and also one posted on Linkedin, I wrote saying, quote.
Kwaio in Malaita Province in the Solomon Islands - a 90 bed hospital facility built in the early 60’s and currently serving a local population exceeding 80,000 people of all ages and degrees of infirmity and illness is desperate for what is basic medical equipment for the needs of a hospital of such importance and significance to the local population.
What I am told is needed, most urgently is –
One ECG machine,
One Infusion Pump, and
Two cardiac monitors.
I appeal to all Solomon Islands donor partners, and especially the Government of Japan in terms of its lengthy record of health and medical aid assistance provided through its highly valued “grass roots” assistance projects, but to all of the SI diplomatic partners, UN affiliated agencies, the UNDP in particular and to aid organizations in Switzerland, New Zealand, Australia, the United States, the United Arab Republics, Israel, India, Singapore, South Korea, the EU, Germany, and banking institutions such as the WB, and the Asian Development Bank, as well as to local organisations, including leading business, organizations and commercial banks to please aid the Atoifi Hospital with the desperately needed equipment items to allow the hospital to function effectively as it should to see to the many patients seeking attention and those already in its daily care.
End of quote.
Today, I was given the costs of the four items of equipment and their total value is said to be less than 7, 400 US dollars, probably less.
What does this say about our overall community health service and the essential equipment needs of an important hospital, and about a rural community exceeding 80,000 when, for a relatively small outlay of less than US 7, 400 dollars, the Atoifi hospital could function as it should and provide the services that have long had to be neglected?
Yours sincerely
Frank Short
