By Mike Puia

LOCAL patient who voluntarily left the National Referral Hospital (NRH) described the country’s national hospital in Honiara as a ‘death row’.

Civil society advocator, Ismael Nori, has been in admission at the NRH for months.

Nori decided to discharge himself from the hospital saying it is of no use being in admission at the NRH.

In an interview with Island Sun, Nori said NRH is a concrete of blue blocks with very sick citizens seeking medical help from hard working but ill resourced doctors and nurses.

He said people are dying at the NRH’s medical ward due to lack of resources.

Nori made these comments in light of the Parliamentary Entitlement Commission’s move to increase the terminal grant to the 50 Members of Parliament.

He said he is also concerned about the PEC award therefore wanted to share with leaders the real situation at the NRH.

“Am sure the terminal grant amount was a recommendation from MPs and I want to challenge their conscience. I want the people to see how our leaders are treating themselves with more money whilst we are in dire need of a better health service,” Nori said.

He said the government and our leaders should reconsider accepting a SBD$400,000 terminal grant to be paid to MPs.

“Our hospital needs more money. One reason why our hospital don’t have right equipment is because the government is not putting enough money in the hospital or medical budget,” Nori said.

He said it appears the government is filling its own pocket when the country needs money for its health services, education, infrastructure and so forth.

Nori appealed to the Prime Minister, Rick Hou, to advice his Finance Minister, who is a member of PEC, to recommend to PEC against any increase.

Or, he said, the best thing to do is for the Prime Minister to fire members of the current PEC.

Nori said elections are coming up and this is the opportunity for voters to make right decision by electing leaders who care about the country’s essential services like health.

“Our vote matters. When we vote wrong people, we are denied of better services,” Nori said.

He said issues ordinary people in the country are facing are real and MPs ignoring these issues for their own good is real therefore this is the moment for voters to make a change.

“If we continue to vote selfish leaders who only increase their benefits further, our hospitals and schools will continue to run down”

“Do we have to wait until our own sons or daughters die at the NRH of illness that can be treated if we have the right machines and drugs before we realise the need for an improved NRH?” Nori said.

He said given the situation at the NRH and the fact MPs are not fully resourcing the NRH people too must keep healthy.

Upon his return home, Nori wrote a personal letter to the Prime Minister which was delivered at the office of the Prime Minister and Cabinet last week. The letter was posted in various social media platforms.

In the letter, he used his experience at the NRH to challenge the government’s decision to increase MPs terminal grants’.

Nori, who organized a petition where he collected signatures from sick patients at the NRH early this year, has held a radio talkback show where he also talks about the issue at the NRH last week.

According to Nori, the petition was not submitted to the Prime Minister since his return from Japan as he (PM) had made an assurance that his government will get a scanner for the NRH from Japan.

It is clear, the assurance failed to come through as the current government will end its term in office next month.

By Gary Hatigeva

PEOPLE of this country need to shift their mind set from imported food products, particularly rice, as our staple food, which it should not.

Rice should in fact be an emergency form of food source, says Finance Minister.

The Finance Minister was making this statement when responding to questions raised on the government’s policy intents to curb the fast growing cases of Non Communicable Diseases (NCD), which is now regarded as one of the major causes of deaths in Solomon Islands.

“On the NCD we move ahead, and the government has started to address some of the things that are highlighted regarding this issue, and seven out of ten deaths in this country, is because of the non communicable diseases,” the Finance Minister said.

He said the government through his ministry, has taken measures on this and increased taxes on those food products that are not good for the people’s health, and put high risks to the country’s population into being affected by NCD.

He added that it was an economic risk the government has taken to put such measures on these sectors, which hosts a revenue base that Solomon Islands also relies heavily on.

Sogavare stressed that it is not an easy thing to do, but the longer term strategy is to shift the country’s population to the alternatives, and that would mean if there is need to import rice, then the healthy option would have to be for brown rice.

“But note that for a bag of brown rice will cost around $600, but that compared to a bag of 20 kg white rice it will only costs around $200, and so it is also important to note that healthy food is expensive.

“However, the easiest option is for our people to shift to local dietaries and we do not need to buy rice.

“We probably need to shift the mindset of our people because they are used to the understanding that rice is our staple food.

“I think that is not the right message to our people on this product, which it should in fact be an emergency food when natural disasters strike and people do not have local food access and supplies, with the reduction of tax so to bring in these products,” the Finance Minister further added.

He then suggested that people are pretending to be poor in this country, and that the poverty status of Solomon Islands needs to be redefined.

“This is because people who starve just decided to be starved, but that does not mean there is poverty because local food options are available in vast amount and free”.