‘Needs to be sorted’
Aircon issues at operating theatres
HEALTH Minister Dr Ifereimi Waqainabete says his team is working roundthe-clock to sort things at Suva’s Colonial War Memorial Hospital.
He made the comment in response to queries from this newspaper about four out of eight operating theatres not working because of issues with airconditioning.
Dr Waqainabete said the four theatres that were operational at the CWM Hospital were predominantly used for acute cases only.
He said the ministry was now fully using other hospitals such as the Koromumu Hospital in Sigatoka to refer cases to.
However, he said the issue surrounding the airconditioning at CWM Hospital “needs to be sorted”.
“We have to sort the issue around the aircon and that is something that is being sorted as we speak, certainly the fixes, so certainly the system has to be improved to meet the continuous demand,” he said.
“We are running the four to five theatres that we have to full capacity and also we are running it at night on the weekend.
“Also being helpful is the fact that we are utilising the Sigatoka theatre.
“We take teams out to the Lau Group, for example, we take teams up to Vunidawa and these places they actually have theatres so they are able to alleviate the non-emergent cases that need to be done, because certainly the non-emergent cases they actually are compounded with the acute cases so we are using the theatres predominantly for the acute cases.”