Hospital chief: We are not okay

CHIMBU’S Kundiawa General Hospital spent more than K500,000 from its trust fund last year to buy medicines and consumables to main the supply needs, chief executive officer Dr Francis Wandi says.
“We try our very best to maintain medical supply not just for the hospital, but all the province’s health centres,” he said.
“The hospital has been running out of essential medical drugs and also consumables and blood testing reagents for blood and urines.”
Wandi said the shortage of the drugs and consumables was the responsibility of the provincial health authority and the Health Department.
“We are trying our very best to keep our heads above the water; we also attend to patients from other provinces,” he said.
Wandi said patients came from other provinces for medical treatment because “we have very good medical specialists and the computerised tomography and magnetic resonance imaging scanners in the hospital”.
“We make sure we have enough supply of essential medical drugs and consumables available for them and the locals,” he said.
“We cannot give excuses to patients, especially those who are travelling.
“People think we are okay, but we are not.
“There must be proper focus on distribution of drugs to the hospitals and the nurses and doctors on the ground must not give more than what a patient needs.
“There must be control over the distribution of drugs at all level.”
A doctor at the hospital said sometimes, surgeries had to be delayed or postponed due to the unavailability of the reagents to test bloods used in surgeries.
“We delay for some days until we get the reagent,” the doctor said.
Meanwhile, the hospital has had 60 Cronavirus cases on Jan 1.
A total of 15 were admitted and 42 were sent home for self-isolation.
There were five deaths – two in the hospital and three outside.