Quoting just a few of the words used in the piece they read.
“Pictures of patients lying helplessly on the floor of the National Referral Hospital (NRH) in Honiara have gone viral on social media.
“The scene was not only sad, but also provocative.
“The NRH is the nation’s top hospital. It’s where all the provinces referred medical cases that they could not dealt with are sent
“It should be our priority. It should have the best of facilities and be able to cater for our health needs.
“What appeared in those photos does not reflect well on the NRH as our top health facility.
“The photos instead conveyed a failing health service and a facility that was not able to cope with the needs of its population.
“They also portrayed a health facility that is overcrowded and neglected.
“Patients are lying and treated on the hospital floor due to lack of beds.
“The NRH is still in the same state 20 years ago while our population continues to increase?”
Comment
The hospital’s chief administrator has acknowledged the situation yesterday and implied that more wards are needed to allow for more beds and to speed up admissions,
The same administrator said that sick people attending the NRH for treatment had increased by some 12 percent on the figures for last year, 2020.
I, for my part, have said I will do my utmost to get the hospital more beds, or a combination of beds and hospital trolleys if only the MHMS can provide the funds for the shipment of a 40 ft container of hospital needs from my partner charity in New Zealand.
Any payment would need to be sent in advance to ‘Take My Hands’ Charitable Trust in Auckland, NZ.
If the main problem at the NRH is really the lack of wards, plus the increase in patient numbers, then perhaps hospital trolleys which are easily movable and would allow a waiting patient to lie down comfortably while waiting admission to a ward would be the answer to the ongoing situation and overcome the unsatisfactory situation of patients lying on the floor.
I remain ready to help in what way the MHMS might request.
Yours sincerely
Frank Short
