Vanuatu hospital stretched but help is on the way

Transcript

The head of Port Vila's hospital says an influx of patients after cyclone Pam is stretching the hospital's limited resources.

The hospital was severely damaged , with only the newest wing left standing.

The medical superintendent, Richard Leona, told Kim Baker-Wilson about the challenges he is facing.

RICHARD LEONA:  The biggest challenge we have here is trying to manage an influx of patients with very limited team and resources and also tiring staff who have also got damaged homes so they are trying to manage their homes at the same time as trying to look after the sick people who are affected by the cyclone.  

KIM BAKER-WILSON:  How many people have you got here who have been injured by the cyclone and how many more are you expecting to come in?

RL:  So far after post-cyclone we have seen about 150 patients who are cyclone-related and we are expecting to see more as the communications open up to the whole country and there are connections to flights through the whole country and primary assessments are done around the country.  We expecting more referrals from on Tanna today.  There is a medical evacuation team going down to evacuate some patients from there so we will be expecting more people.

KBW:  Is this the only hospital in Vanuatu that can take people?

RL:  Not really.  This is a high teritary level hospital for Vanuatu but we have a hospital up north in Luganville town, that's on the island of Santo, which has a one-level down capacity compared to this hospital but they can take patients.

KBW:  We went to Tanna yesterday and there's obviously a lot of people who hadn't had much clean drinking water, there's a lack of food, sanitation levels are fairly low.  With the lack of fresh water and food what are some of the issues arising as a result of that in terms of illness?

RL:  We get diarrheal diseases, so gastro-enteritis, and we do see some of them already at this hospital affecting kids.  We have isolated some children from normal patients.  We also see some viral illnesses which WHO has classified.  

KBW:  How are these viral illnesses being transpired?

RL:  The viral illnesses are being transpired by the change of weather and the environment being dirty and the virus grow during this time.  We definitely know that there's damage to sanitation and water supply.  That's a big concern for us in the country.  The good thing is that we have a good team that is helping to make sure that we control these illnesses, identify them and manage them well.  There are challenges out in the islands, and that is the issue.

KBW:  This is only a small hospital I guess and you are talking about the influx of people, how will you deal with the influx of people?

RL:  We are getting a mobile hospital from Australia with extra nurses and extra doctors and there are already Australian and New Zealand doctors on the ground but we are getting a mobile hospital  to accommodate this influx of patients and also better triage these patients and manage them well during this disaster period.