MOST of the beds within the National Referral Hospital (NRH) wards are fully occupied.
NRH, CEO Dr. Steve Aumanu revealed this in a health press conference on Wednesday.
“The hospital is fully occupied,” he said.
He said bed occupancy rate at 100 per cent most of the time in most wards making it a significant challenge to transfer patients needing impatience care into the wards as soon as possible.
However, with the current dengue outbreak, Dr Aumanu said the hospital emergency operation center has been activatedsince the 10th of October 2016. (See separate story.)
“There are a total of 137 nurses, doctors and supporting staff that are currently tasked to the dengue response management.
“This is to support the emergency department and manage sick people arriving at the emergency department.
“A dengue sorting and treatment pathway at the emergency department has been established and operational since the 13th Oct 2016,” he added.
“This is to ensure that sick people are seen in a timely manner and an appropriate treatment and instructions are provided.
“Impatience care medical team has been established to manage very sick patient and space has been identified and prepared to cater for additional patients needing hospital admission.
“The NRH response team has been enhanced, and are working around the clock to provide clinical care and an additional transport has been provided by World Health Organisation (WHO) for the dengue response team.
“The ventilation and an environment at the emergency department is currently being addressed.”
He added that the Ministry of health, Public health response team and Honiara City Council vector spray teams are also active in spraying in some areas within Honiara city.
“The NRH emergency operation center is monitoring the situation very closely by twice daily briefings and updates.
“The hospital emergency operation Centre plans to enhance coordination and integration with HCC health service and Guadalcanal Provincial health service.
“This is to ensure that sick people presented with dengue like illness to all health facilities in Honiara and key health facilities in Guadalcanal Province are managed appropriately.
“And as of 18th October, training has been conducted by NRH medical team for the Guadalcanal Province health professional to sensitized to clinical care management,” he said.
By STEPHEN DIISANGO