Signing of petition on PM for quality medical service starts today

BY JARED KOLI

VOLUNTEERS will today begin to collect signatures from patients at the National Referral Hospital (NRH) to call on the Prime Minister to call for a Commission of Enquiry (COE) into the medical and health service provided at the hospital.

With observed lack of access to quality health services at the National Referral Hospital (NRH), the move is headed by a local civil society activist, Ishmael Nori, and has received overwhelming support from the public, members of the Forum Solomon Islands International (FSII), and Young Women Parliamentary Group (YWPG).

In a phone interview yesterday, Mr Nori who is a patient at NRH, said volunteers will gather outside the NRH Rehabilitation Unit before moving on to different wards within the hospital to collect signatures from patients who support this worthy cause.

“The Acting Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of NRH is supportive of the move, and give us a nudge that patients have right to call for quality health services. We will work in close collaboration with FSII and YWPG starting tomorrow (today) to give out petition forms to patients and invited their signatures,” Nori said.

He said nurses who support this can also sign in the petition forms.

“After this we will compile all the signatories and see where we can go from here to present this to the Prime Minister. We are looking at presenting the signatories to the prime minister through a Member of Parliament (MP) who will act as our Ambassador.

“We want to see the recommendations set in the 2009 and 2015 Special Select Committee report into the Quality of Medical Services provided at NRH fully implemented, more on the development aspects of NRH,” Nori added.

He earlier told Island Sun that people and ordinary citizens of this country deserve a St Vincent-like quality hospital service provided at the NRH.

“I have observed that for many people, there is nothing much to do for them here, if we can have services that are accessed by our Ministers or Members of Parliament at St Vincent hospital here during the early stages of their sick, that could prevent deaths and save lives here,” he adds.

Nori also questions how the government prioritizes health workers, doctors, nurses and technical staff on specialized trainings.

“What we want the government to do is to prioritise to save lives same as the quality of service at its sister hospital, St Vincent hospital in Sydney, Australia,” Nori said.

He said the petition is for people who believe that this is a good cause, all for the sake of improving quality of service in the hospital, such as improved state of the art medical facilities and so forth.

“How can we afford this, knowing our needs, identifying our medical needs is what we want, and at the same time identify specialize training needs to serve our people.

“Besides hospital relocation, the government must look at this as a national project,” Nori said.

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