BY MAVIS N PODOKOLO
NATIONAL referral hospital (NRH) has rebuffed observations that ‘sleeping on the floor due to lack of bed’ is one contributing factor to deaths at the emergency ward.
Chief Executive Officer of NRH, Dr George Malefoasi says, “There is never an evidence shows patient die or increasing the severity of illness of a person who slept on the floor due to bed shortage because the hospital wards are disinfected daily by our cleaners.
“Whilst bed shortage is an ongoing hospital management issues, there are no evidence or an incident where people die because of sleeping on the floor at the hospital.
“These hospital wards are disinfected daily by our cleaners.
“However, the overcrowding of the wards will be jeopardising the infection control measures undertaken.
“This is why the hospital management is so concern of too many people coming in the hospital. Unfortunately, it can be deemed as people coming to hospital forgetting or subconscious that they are in the hospital that accommodate sick people, not a community centre.”
Island Sun had raised the matter to CEO Malefoasi last week following public concerns that some of the deaths at the emergency department included patients who were lying on the floor because of lack of beds.
