NCDs OCCUPY MOST HOSPITAL BEDS AT NUMBER 9 HOSPITAL

Patients diagnosed with non-communicable disease are occupying almost 1-hundred percent of beds in the medical and surgical wards at the National Referral Hospital in Honiara.

Non-communicable diseases are not passed from person to person, and includes illnesses like heart attacks and stroke, cancers, chronic respiratory diseases and diabetes.

Hospital Nursing Director Selwyn Hou told SIBC News, more than seventy-percent of patients are diagnosed with diabetes.

“The medical ward only has 42 beds but is now 100 percent occupied, 41 beds occupied, the surgical ward only has 49 beds but 50 patients have been admitted in this ward, so out of those figures more than 70 percent belong to diabetes and other non-communicable disease-related patients admitted.”

The Nursing Director also said, while the number of NCD cases are increasing, his department faces the challenge of limited resources.

Meanwhile, the Nursing Director said the Hospital Executive has plans to relocate the Hospital to address the issue of increases in bed occupancy in hospital wards.

He said relocation is the best solution since the hospital cannot afford any infrastructure development at the moment.

“I think the plan the Hospital Executive is looking at is for the relocation of the hospital, which should be the top priority because at the moment the current space that we have cannot cater for anymore additional infrastructure as such.”