DAY in and day out and in rain or shine, the state-of-the-art National Referral Hospital (NRH) Comprehensive Medical Centre (CMC), which was officially handed over by the Ambassador of the People’s Republic of China (PRC), Cai Weiming to the Solomon Islands Government last Friday, will stand as a reminder of two overarching factors.
The first is the transformative impact of the People’s Republic of China-Solomon Islands bilateral aid assistance and global development initiatives which are strategically aligned to the Chinese President Xi Jinping’s Vision of a Community of Shared Future of Prosperity for Mankind.
The second is a shared vision by the Senior Executive Management Team of the National Referral Hospital under the leadership of the Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Health and Medical Services, Pauline McNeil for the establishment of a state-of-the-art facility that offers highly specialised tertiary care clinical services to all Solomon Islanders and residents of Solomon Islands.
The CMC, which stands on the eastern end of the NRH compound, was funded by PRC at the cost of SBD90Million. It is the second accomplished landmark infrastructure in Honiara to be funded by ChinaAid following the establishment of the Solomon Islands-PRC bilateral relations in September 2019.
In his keynote address at occasion, Prime Minister Jeremiah Manele said the handing over of the ‘magnificent’ facility marked another major achievement in the bilateral relations between Solomon Islands and China.
“It also signifies the deepening of our cooperation in the health sector in addition to other areas of development in our country. This magnificent gift is therefore a testament of the deepening friendship and cooperation between our two countries.
“Ladies and gentlemen, this beautiful building is one of many developments in the Ministry of Health and Medical Services resulting from the Memorandum of Understanding that was signed between our two countries in 2021,” he added.
PM Manele said the state-of-the-art CMC will lift the range and quality of medical services available to Solomon Islanders, without the need for referral to overseas institutions for investigations and further treatment.
“Ladies and gentlemen, the major services that will be provided at this new facility are Cardiology, which deals with the heart and heart diseases, Nephrology, which deals with kidney diseases and Urology, which deals with diseases of the urinary tract.
“The facility has specialist clinics in these three disease categories, traditional Chinese Medicine Clinic and a Pharmacy on the ground floor, Three Wards of eight beds each on the Second Floor for each of the three disease categories, together with a two-bed Dialysis Unit, a Laboratory, CT scan, Conference Centre and Training Room on the third floor and operating theaters on the Fourth Floor.
“We now have world class facilities for these three disease groups to undertake most of the diagnoses and treatment. We are now focusing on enhancing the capacity of our doctors, nurses and other related specialist disciplines to enable the facility to provide the fullest level of service possible to our people as soon as possible.”
PM Manele thanked the MHMS Management Team under the leadership of Permanent Secretary Pauline McNeil for their foresight and tireless efforts in ensuring government’s responsibilities in the project, which enabled the construction work to commence soon after the groundbreaking ceremony 13 months ago.
The PRC Ambassador Cai Weiming, in his keynote remarks, said the China-Aid funded CMC stands as another symbol, and new milestone of the high-level mutual trust and high-quality cooperation between China and Solomon Islands.
He said the China-Solomon Islands relationship continued to grow robustly, seeing comprehensive strategic partnership constantly enriched and fruitful achievements made across various fields.
Ambassador Cai said guided by President Xi Jinping’s Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for the New Era, China injected strong momentum into promoting peace and development in 2024.
He assured that China will stay committed to high-quality development and high-standard opening-up, maintain the continued upward trajectory of the Chinese economy, and bring more “positive surprises” to the global economy. And China shares development opportunities with the world.
Ambassador Cai said China will continue to provide aid and support the implementation of signature projects as well as small, but smart projects in Solomon Islands.
“We shall strengthen exchanges and cooperation in the fields of education, health, culture, sports, youth and sub-national cooperation,” he added.
The Minister of Health and Medical Services, Dr Paulson Popora Bosawai in his introductory speech at the event, hailed the CMC as a magnificent gift that will one day ‘save your life and my life’ and highlighted the vision behind its establishment.
“Four years ago in 2020 under the leadership of my Permanent Secretary and together with her dynamic senior executive management team had a vision for a new state of the art health facility.
“A vision that would build a facility that would offer highly specialised tertiary clinical care services that are disability user-friendly and that would have a high level of infection control and prevention adaptability,
“A vision that would offer such highly specialised medical services that could be accessed promptly in-country without having to travel abroad, thereby saving the government millions of dollars.
“A vision that a health facility would be a state of the art facility that would promote the best, the cleanest and the safe work place for the specialist doctors, specialist nurses, affiliated health staff and other supporting workers.
“Ladies and gentlemen, the new Comprehensive Medical Centre or for short CMC, was a vision which has now been fulfilled today and I’m very happy.”
Minister Bosawai said this vision is central to the broader National Health Strategy 2022-2031 visionary pathway for all stakeholders and the NRH as a critical service provider towards the achievement of universal health coverage for Solomon Islands, ensuring the best quality health services are accessible by all.
“This new CMC could bring about change by upgrading the level of health services in-country for our people who would need them when this facility becomes operational as this facility would be offering specialised medical services for our people now and for our generations to come.”
Minister Bosawai said Solomon Islands is experiencing a silent killer disease – Non-Communicable Diseases.
The Minister said with the CMC now available to provide specialised services for those with NCD complications, his Ministry is more determined than ever to tackle NCDs to ensure a mission towards universal health coverage for Solomon Islanders.
“The government’s priority under my ministry is to tackle the NCD crisis in the country head-on, positioning our reach to communities and families through strategies and interventions on primary health and community population health,”
However, he added that MHMS alone cannot achieve this, but needs collaboration of all sectors – both the public and private – to fight against NCDs.
Dr Bosawai expressed that as the MHMS Minister and a clinician himself, he was very proud of this auspicious moment and of what his Ministry and its stakeholders in the project have accomplished together.
“To witness this moment and this achievement is remarkable and truly humbling for me. But this day would not have come to fruition if not for the hard work and more hours and dedication of my hard working team and officials from the Ministry of Health and the National Referral Hospital, the officials of the Chinese Embassy, the Jiangsu Jiangdu Construction Group and all our other stakeholders, including the Ministry of Finance and Treasury, Royal Solomon Islands Police Force, the Environmental Division in the Ministry of Environment, Climate Change, Disaster Management and Meteorology, Honiara City Council and State-Owned Enterprises, Solomon Islands Electricity Authourity and Solomon Islands Water Authourity. We have journeyed the together and we now stand proud that we have done it.”
Dr Bosawai also thanked his predecessor, the former MHMS Minister Dr Culwick Togamana, who was also present at the occasion, for his significant contributions to the CMC project.
“I must thank my predecessor Dr Togamana for starting this journey and we are here now to complete the journey and begin another journey of saving lives.”
The handover ceremony was attended by Cabinet Ministers, the Leader and Members of the Opposition, Heads of State-Owned and Private Enterprises, government officials, Members of the Diplomatic Corps and officials from the Ministry of Health and Medical Services, including the National Referral Hospital.
By DELI-SHARON OSO
Solomon Star, Honiara
