Minister on management of patients in need of overseas medical treatment
HEALTH Minister Dr Ifereimi Waqainabete said from January to March this year, the Health Ministry had transferred 10 patients to New Zealand for medical treatment.
And from February this year, after regular assessment because of COVID-19, he said the ministry had started to transfer patients to India.
“We managed to send two across,” he said.
“We have another 11 patients that we are now organising to send across to India.
“The ministry is also organising the transfer of another two patients to India and the total cost of the overseas transfers to both India and New Zealand is about $110,000.”
Dr Waqainabete says the referrals are made with due consideration of the severity of the patients’ diseases and the requirement for timely treatment and medical intervention to ensure maximum benefit.
“The majority of these patients that are sent overseas are for specialist treatment for congenital heart disease, cancers and chronic heart disease.
“The contention of the ministry is to ensure that all overseas treatment is safe and efficient, given the many challenges that we are facing during this pandemic.”
He said patients who could not be transferred overseas during this time were continually followed up with and treated in our hospitals by local specialists and would be considered for overseas transfers once there was a favourable assessment of the global pandemic situation and their physical condition allowed for long-term travel.
Dr Waqainabete made the comments when he updated Parliament last week on measures taken, because of border closure, to manage patients who needed medical and surgical treatment abroad.