NZ charity throws Solomons hospital a lifeline

Transcript

Solomon Islands national hospital is being thrown a much needed lifeline of donated medical supplies sourced by New Zealand non-profit organisation Take My Hands.

The under resourced hospital, which serves the whole of the country, has come up with a wish list of its needs and Take My Hands is doing its best to source the medical equipment and supplies from around New Zealand for the Hospital.

The organisation's managing trustee, Janette Searle, told Koroi Hawkins they were made aware of the hospital's plight by the country's former Police Commissioner.

JANETTE SEARLE: We were contacted by Frank Short, who was the former police commissioner over there. He had an interview that we did with Radio New Zealand, in New Zealand and so he contacted us and told us about what his interest was, about Solomon Islands and it kind of grew from there. We let him know about the way that we work with organisations. So we get a list of what's needed or their wish list or needs list, if you like. And then we match that as best as possible with the equipment that we have got, or that we collect from the medical equipment providers that we work with here in New Zealand. And he was really interested in it and so he put us in contact with the Ministry of Health and the hospital. And he sort of facilitated the process of collecting those needs lists, so that we had a good understanding of what sort of stuff was required over there and could make it a really useful shipment when it goes.

KOROI HAWKINS: And what is needed in the Solomon Islands national referral hospital?

JS: Lots, so it's everything from sort of beds and linens through to scales and forceps, defibrillators, diagnostic sets, examination beds, examination lights, headlights, IV drip stands. There is a massive range of things and it is actually quite common, a lot of the places in the islands, health clinics and hospitals need similar equipment. Yeah so it's a really broad range, nurses watches, stethoscopes all sorts of things.

KH: And how much are you sending over? You said first container so I am assuming there is more?

JS: So we are putting together the first 40 foot container at the moment. Half of that will be filled with the hospital beds and the rest of it we are looking to fill with as much as we can that meets the needs. So for example crutches, IV stands, wheelchairs, trolleys, any of the consumables that are still within their usable date. That kind of thing will be packed into there. At the moment what we are doing is collecting from a number of providers around New Zealand and they have their own process around being able to provide equipment and ensuring, I mean what is really important is that everything we send is useable. And we have checked that, so there is a quality management control in there. So both our equipment providers know that they will only send us stuff that is useable. No broken, no out of date, you know that kind of stuff. And then when we get it to our warehouse, before it is packed into the containers we do a sorting day or a sorting few days and just check that actually it is still working it's still a state that it is still useable. So once we have got a really clear idea around what we have got that meets the list, what we can fit into that container. We send a full inventory of what we have got across to the contacts at the Ministry of Health and at the hospital so that they can just double check that yup that is cool we want everything on the list or maybe take this off or add this or whatever and then we pack it and send it.