MINISTER BOSAWAI OFFICIATES IN START OF WORK EVENT AT NAHA BIRTHING AND URBAN HEALTH CENTRE

The Minister for Health and Medical Services (MHMS) the Hon. Dr Paul Popora Bosawai yesterday joined the Australian Deputy Prime Minister the Hon. Richard Marles MP at the proposed SBD 250 million Naha Birthing and Urban Health Centre site, for a brief ceremony to officially mark the start of construction work at the site, located at Naha One, next to the existing Naha clinic.

The brief ceremony was attended by officials from both the Australian and Solomon Islands governments, representatives of the Naha Community, officials from the Solomon Islands Infrastructure Program and the nurses and health workers of Naha Clinic.

Speaking at the ceremony MHMS Minister the Hon Dr Bosawai said the establishment of the Birthing Centre commencing construction in July 2024, will be a first for the country and will enable high quality birthing services for new mothers and their babies in a modern, safe environment outside of the National Referral Hospital.

“This Birthing Centre will have capacity for up to 1500 low risk deliveries per year and this will greatly assist with reducing the workload on the NRH Delivery Wards and the NRH’s over-worked midwifery staff. ”

“The long-awaited project commencement could not have come at a better time given NRH current challenges. Currently, at the NRH, the labour ward attends to 6,177 deliveries in 2023, with an average 5,771 per year 2021 to 2023, which is an estimate of 500 births per month, about 125 births weekly and about 18 births per day. This scenario is such that it puts additional pressure and has implications on many other things including bed space, workforce, medical supplies and consumables, budget, logistics, and primary care services to name a few.”

“The pressure on beds at the current birthing ward at NRH is always extremely high. There are 10 recovery beds in the labour ward. So, if the labour ward has to have about 18 deliveries per day on average, bed occupancy would of course become a huge challenge.  In 2023 the bed occupancy rate is 126%. Given such challenging situations, upon delivery, mothers should stay at least 24 hours at the hospital but given the lack of space, mothers are usually discharged eight hours after giving birth. This is very risky for both mothers and babies as sometimes either the mothers or babies will develop other illnesses while at home. Space limitations at the NRH is a challenge whilst the population growth continues at 2.8 annually,” said Minister Bosawai.

The Health Minister also thanked Australia for their funding support towards the Birthing Centre.

“Allow me to also to take this moment to acknowledge the presence of the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Defence of Australia, Honourable Richard Marles. Thank you indeed for gracing us this afternoon and my sincerest appreciation to your Government and the people of Australia for the substantial support of SBD$250 Million towards the construction of this modern facility.”

“It is my hope and wish that the new Naha birthing facility will truly deliver the services it promises. That this new mother who will one day use the upcoming new facility will truly represent her needs, this new mother is not asking for favors, she just wants to give birth safely and that she maintains her dignity,” said Minister Bosawai.

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– MHMS Press Release