MHMS & CIP renewed commitment to improve health services

The Ministry of Health and Medical Services (MHMS) in partnership with the Central Islands Provincial Government have this week made renewed commitment towards improving health infrastructure, services and human resources for the people of Central Islands Province.

In 2008, project to upgrade the Tulagi hospital was unfortunately left incomplete and abandoned, and with the absence of basic diagnostic services like medical laboratory and x-ray many patients had to be referred or travel to Honiara to seek medical treatment that should have been available the the provincial health facility.

Health team visits RWASH Office in Tulagi after the consultation

A one- day consultation was held this week at the provincial capital, Tulagi, which brought together the provincial partners and a renewed commitment was made to develop the necessary health infrastructure including redevelopment of provincial hospital at Tulagi.

The Tulagi Hospital will be upgraded to meet the general hospital standards as stipulated in the ministry’s Role Delieantation Policy (RDP) including specialized medical equipment to enable the hospital to provide hospital level services such as x-rays, medical laboratory and appropriate human resources to staff the hospital in the immediate term.

In the long- run, parties agreed to work together on a proposal for the construction of new hospital facility with the site soon to the identified.  

At the consultation, Premier of Central Islands Province (CIP) Honorable Stanley Manetiva acknowledged and expressed great appreciation towards the Permanent Secretary Health and delegation for the visit to hold the consultation.

 “It has been a very long time since we’ve last had a high level delegation from health let alone the permanent secretary visiting us and holding consultation with the provincial government, therefore your presence here in our province is greatly appreciated and gives us a renewed hope for the health of our people”, stated Mr. Manetiva.

He assured the visiting delegation of the provincial government’s commitment towards the initiative. “Permanent secretary and your team, my government is delighted in this initiative and thus assure that we will render our support where needed and strive to fulfil our tasks as discussed in the consultation”.

Health Permanent Secretary Mrs. Pauline McNeil in response acknowledged the Premier and the provincial government including the provincial health team for the tremendous show of support.

 “The level of support demonstrated by your administration towards this initiative is greatly appreciated and health is very pleased to be partnering with the provincial government on this as only through our cooperation and collaboration we can achieve great things”, said Mrs. McNeil.

She highlighted that the work to be done with Tulagi hospital and the proposed new hospital are part of the overall national efforts of the ministry to fulfil the intention of its Role Delineation Policy, which is in part to provide quality health care services that are easily accessible to the people.

With the deteriorating health infrastructure and services at the Tulagi hospital, Mrs. McNeil highlighted that this is no time to talk about the past and its failures but to look ahead and think differently, forge new partnerships and deliver what our people are rightfully entitled to.

 “With this, it has been the focus of the ministry to take advantage of every single opportunities to strengthen our health systems. This is also the case with the COVID-19 pandemic, though challenges, we are working hard to ensure that opportunities are maximized to our benefit, thanks to our national government and health partners for recognizing this endeavor and the support rendered” explained Mrs. McNeil.

With the redevelopment of the Tulagi hospital, $700,000 have been committed under its development budget 2021 for assessment and redesign of the hospital with $5.8 million from the World Bank allocated for the actual redevelopment work. For the proposed new hospital, health is working closely with Asian Development Bank for this initiative.

The consultation was then followed by site visit to the current Tulagi hospital and proposed locations for set up of new incinerators.