Seventy percent of Malaita’s health system claimed to be seriously run down, says Director of Provincial Health
When speaking during the launch of the upcoming vaccination roll out in Malaita, the Director of Malaita’s Provincial Health, Dr. David Danitofea reportedly revealed that more than 70 percent of the health system in the province has “run down”, and only waits to be “shut down.”
Dr, Danitofea said the prevailing health situation was a blow for the province as it faces the threat of the Covid pandemic.
He said early this year a study was carried out by UNICEF and provincial health authorities on health facilities, staffing, drugs and other related health resources in the province.
Dr. Danitofea said the report produced after the survey was interesting as it found that more than 70 percent of health facilities in the province had run down and some needed to close-down.
“Our health facilities are not up to standard. Added to that, more than half of the rural clinics in the province are run by nurse-aides instead of registered nurses,” Dr, Danitofea said.
“Even Kilu’ufi hospital also faces a similar situation. Sometimes during a shift, only a nurse will look after the whole ward whilst this is the main hospital in the province,” he added.
Dr.Danitofea stressed that the health system in the province was not up to standard and does not match what the Ministry of health wants for the country.
“Our health system is down and we are struggling with it. Exposing this is for us to see the reality of our health system… it’s not a good news,” he said.
“With the run-down health status, think about what will happen if the corona virus enters Malaita.
“It will be a blow and disaster for Malaita.”
He said while the national government is doing all it can to stop the virus, people must be responsible and get vaccinated to prevent a disaster in the event the virus enters the community.
“The best thing to do to prevent corona virus is get vaccinated, so that we are ready to face the virus. And only through vaccination we can deal with it.
“We must try all our best to avoid the virus and not just to sit down and do nothing,” Dr.Danitofea said.
He urged Malaitans to get vaccinated.
Yours sincerely
Frank Short
