Private company funded Special Care Nursery delivered to NRH

New born babies at the National Referral Hospital that require special care will now have space to themselves where they can receive special treatment in comfort, thanks to a private company in Honiara.

The Special Care Nursery which was renovated and extended by Lee Kwok Kuen (Solomon Sheet Steel Ltd) was blessed and officially handed over to the NRH this morning with smiles and applauds from guests and patients who witnessed the event.

The new nursery can now accommodate between 25 to 30 babies and their mothers, whilst the old rundown one could only manage eight.

Dr Titus Nasi, Head of Paediatrics Ward at the NRH said this a milestone as it would now enable them to relocate all patients to the nursery as they were housed in different wards in the hospital due to lack of space.

Chief Executive Officer of NRH Dr George Malefoasi recalled that they were looking for support and didn’t get much respond until Lee Kwok Kuen responded positively in August last year. The company had agreed to renovate and extend the old labour ward from eight beds with little spaces to its new 25-30 beds with more spaces.

A Special Care Nursery looks after babies who still need extra care after birth. They may be premature babies, or have a low birth weight or need specific care for neonatal health issues.

One nurse told SBMOnline that this is a very important space in the hospital as it deals with new born babies that require treatment before they are discharged.

Dr Malefoasi highly commended the Lee Kwok Kuen especially the family of the company for their support to the NRH.

Dr. Nasi stated that the project started several years ago and since then mothers and babies had been moved around the hospital until now.

He added that there was a real need for a nursery as previously a WHO study showed that the occupancy rate at the nursery was 200%. The WHO rate is 85%.

Dr Nasi hopes that with the much improved nursery with additional space it would further reduced that and allow mothers and their babies to be housed under one roof.

Besides that, there are now spaces for staff including office.

Speaking on behalf of the company Neil said the company was humbled to support the NRH and convey their thank you to the NRH for giving them the opportunity to improve the facilities.

News@SBMOnline2022