DEAR EDITOR, recently the Prime Minister took time on his visit to Taiwan to observe the working of a CT scan and expressed an interest in obtaining such an invaluable diagnostic tool for the Solomon Islands.
I would really urge the PM and the Solomon Islands government to do everything possible to acquire one such machine for the NRH.
The NRH, being the main referral centre in the Solomon Islands, has the ultimate responsibility for the medical care of a population now around 650,000, if recent estimates of population figures are correct, but is devoid of the one essential tool, a CT scanner, already in use in Nauru with a tiny population and in Kiribati, Tonga and Samoa, Papua New Guinea and likely, also, in Fiji.
A $26 million upgrade to Nauru Hospital was comparatively recently funded by the Australian taxpayers to allow for pediatric, cancer and obstetric services and CT scans.
Nauru has a population of about 11,000 and the upgrade of the hospital and provision of a CT scan was reported to have been undertaken to stop asylum seekers held on the island from having to travel to Australia for medical treatment.
I would encourage anyone in the Solomon Islands interested to learn more of a CT scan to try and view the documentary series of programmes on U-Tube covering the work of the trauma team of doctors at the Royal London Hospital to get a proper understanding of how essential a CT scan is to the work of those doctors seeking an early and essential diagnosis of an injured person admitted in an emergency.
The documentary series of several episodes is entitled “Trauma Doctors.”
As the country will soon enter its 40th year of independence, I would earnestly appeal, once more, to Solomon Islands regional donor partners, particularly, the Government of the Republic of China (on Taiwan), the Government of Japan, Australia and New Zealand to help the Solomon Islands Government and the NRH to quickly acquire a CT scanner, help built the facility to house it, and so ensure proper medical diagnosis is given to hospital patients who are risk without the intervention and use of such a diagnostic tool.
Yours sincerely
FRANK SHORT
