BY BEN BILUA
Gizo
The controversy surrounding Helena Goldie Hospital’s failed operation theatre has deepened, with newly uncovered information revealing that the hospital was largely excluded from key planning and decision-making processes before construction began.
Medical Superintendent of Helena Goldie Hospital, Dr. Raymond Kuray Dickson said the hospital was largely excluded from the planning and design process of the redevelopment project.
He said the gaps in the initial planning contributed to the failure of the OT which remains unusable more than a year after the facility was officially handed over.
Dickson said hospital management and staff had little opportunity to provide practical, site-level input before construction began, despite being the end users of the upgraded health facility.
“The reality is that Helena Goldie Hospital was largely excluded from the formal organizational structure and planning stages of this project,” he said.
Dickson explained that the initial planning and design were undertaken at the ministerial level in Honiara before hospital staff were presented with a near-final blueprint.
“About two weeks before the first bricks were laid, contractors and representatives from the Ministry of Health and Medical Services, Environmental Health and Logistics presented a pre-finalized blueprint to us.
“It was a top-down project where Helena Goldie Hospital staff were left as mere spectators, witnessing our soon-to-be refurbished hospital on paper with no window to make practical, site-level adjustments. We could only assume at the time that senior medical officers at the National Referral Hospital had provided the necessary clinical input,” Dickson said.
He said the construction of the redevelopment project began after the contract was formalized and work mobilized in March 2024 forcing the hospital temporarily relocated its clinical services to the nearby Helena Goldie Nursing School to allow work to proceed.
Dickson said the redevelopment included a refurbished general ward, operating theatre, labour and maternity unit, and a new standalone isolation unit.
“On 13th April 2025, the Solomon Islands Government and the World Bank officially handed over the upgraded facility,” he said.
However, Dickson said the hospital’s operating theatre has yet to become operational.
“It is now 443 days since the official opening and the operation theatre remains completely non-operational,” he said.
Dickson said the project experienced setbacks during construction, including the termination of the original contractor before a second contractor was engaged to complete the remaining work.
He said hospital staff later identified numerous structural and technical defects after the facilities were handed over.
“Once the facilities were handed over, we discovered a significant number of structural and technical defects that required immediate corrective action by the responsible authorities,” Dickson said.
He said the hospital has spent more than a year raising the matter with the Ministry of Health and Medical Services, the Solomon Islands Government and visiting development partners in an effort to have the problems rectified.
“For over a year, we have felt completely powerless, doing nothing but raising our voices because we desperately want our operating theatre to save lives again,” Dickson said.
He said recent public attention generated through Island Sun Newspaper has renewed hope that the longstanding issues will finally be addressed.
“For the first time in 443 days, we feel heard. We feel like we have won a major battle for our community,” Dickson said.
He expressed appreciation to those who have supported the hospital’s calls for accountability and corrective action.
Island Sun understands that the hospital continues to await the completion of remedial works before the operating theatre can resume services.
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