In a piece published in the Island Sun newspaper today, the Hon. Minister of Health has refuted claim by the Opposition leader that the status of the national referral hospital is dire.
When contributing to the motion of no-confidence on Monday this week, Health minister Dr Culwick Togamana told the house, and I quote.
I choose to disagree the NRH infrastructure has improved with government investment
The CT scan building at the NRH has been completed with an investment and is government owned, worth $17m.
All necessary training has been conducted and getting all necessary equipment including the CT scanner into the country and installation is underway.”
All provinces and provincial hospitals have two or more medical doctors except for Renbel.
Medical doctors are also posted in three Area Health Centres; Tingoa, Marau and Tangarare.
“And in the Honiara City council, clinics and nearby Guadalcanal clinics doctors run outpatients clinics during working days.”
Through Japanese grant aid, provincial hospitals and primary health care facilities have been equipped.
Stethoscopes with blood pressure machines and other medical machines have been distributed to strengthen the provincial health services.
The Good Samaritan Hospital has also been enhanced in terms of its capability and capacity for blood test and x-ray examinations
End of quote.
Comment
I cannot comment on all that the Hon. Health Minister told Parliament but do know of the aid given by the Japanese Government by way of donated equipment to at least one provincial hospital in Malaita and the building of a laboratory at the Good Samaritan Hospital with a substantial donation from the SFA and equipment help from the government of Norway.
The Hon Minister did not say whether the NRH’S Cancer Unit now has one or more workable mammogram machines, vital equipment for early detection of breast cancer in women, machines the head of the Unit said were urgently needed and which I appealed for international through my website, including reaching out to the Foreign Minister of New Zealand for assistance in one of my most recent letters.
The Hon Health Minister did not refer to the huge demand for prosthetic or artificial limbs needed still by hundreds of ex-NRP patients who had suffered the loss of a leg or foot after having undergone amputation following succumbing to diabetes. Neither did Minister Togamama say how the gifted facility to the NRH in September 2020 was now being used to assist in the rehabilitation of NRH patients, especially amputees.
If it remains true that NRH patients are still having to lie on the floor in the hospital while having had treatment, or waiting to be seen by a doctor,. due to shortage of hospital beds and crowded wards, then my offer to assist with high quality beds still stands, in cooperation with my partner charity in New Zealand, ‘Take My Hands.’
In my most recent letters about the NRH, I have mentioned the existing unsatisfactory shortcomings in the Overseas Referral Programme which exists to allow NRH patients with illnesses that are considered suitable for recovery if given treatment, including surgery, referral offshore to hospitals in either New Zealand or Australia. Unlike in past years patients were transferred under what was termed the 10 bed scheme to the Prince Alfred Hospital in Sydney and provided with free treatment and travel. No such system operates anymore. Patients considered suitable for offshore transfer, and for which no suitable treatment exists for them in the Solomon Islands, cannot get offshore because there is reportedly not enough money included in the MHMS budget for such evacuation.
Such comment does not infer any criticism of the ORC Committee presently chaired by the current Medical Superintendent of the NTH, Dr.Janella Solomon or her ORC Team; neither does it infer any criticism of her previous acting MS.
Finally, I once more mention the abhorrent practice said to be continuing at the NRH of disrespectfully handing over to grieving parents the bodies of aborted or still born infants in cardboard boxes rather than in small but suitably made containers, either of wood or plastic material.
Yours sincerely
Frank Short
