Boram has response plan: Chief

EAST SEPIK Health Authority chief executive officer Matthew Kaluvia says plans to respond to emergencies and medical evacuation are still under way for the redeveloped Boram hospital.
Kaluvia said this in response to Cynthia Kwamillon, a risk and compliance specialist who made a video stating that there was no emergency protocol and medical evacuation plans in place at the hospital.
“I don’t think they have, there’s nothing on the walls and the staff are not trained for emergency evacuation drills,” Kwamillon said.
“The patients are surgical ward patients, they are bleeding out there and no one has come to reassure them yet.”
According to Kaluvia, when the magnitude-6.9 earthquake hit the province on Sunday, one of the gas cylinders fell in the surgical ward which caused threat to the patients so they had rushed out.
“The earthquake caught everyone by surprise and even if the nurses had gone through training and protocol, it would still be difficult to manage and rush everyone out at the same time,” he said.
“Given the (low) number of nurses we have one nurse attends to one ward of about 10 people but at that night only one nurse was on night shift.” He said the directors and management team arrived on time and had resolved the issue.
“No patient was bleeding,” he added.
“Maybe the IV cannula came out of the skin which caused bleeding.
“But we managed it and everything went back to normal.
“We have plans on medical evacuation.”
Kaluvia said last year the staff members went through some emergency drills.
“With the new hospital right in front, how to get patients in a rush or hurry,” he said.
“We are trying to introduce the colour coding system for all the emergency drills – for fire, disaster, earth quake, tide, for storms or bomb threats, staff threats.
“Those drills, we have a system in place.
“It is a new hospital, so we are slowly picking up things.
“By next month, we should have a medical standard team from the Department of Health to come and conduct the emergency drills and together with partnership in the fire service in Wewak.”
Kaluvia urged the people not to run to social media if anything such happens in future but to consult him and the management to find a solution.