The Solomon Star newspaper carried a feature article today, Saturday, telling how the SFA had agreed to my plea to help pay for the full medical treatment of the late Linda Mabo at a Sydney Hospital, but the child sadly passed away before payment details could be finalized.
In the course of interceding on behalf of young Linta and the SFA, over several weeks, in getting paid to the hospital, I received word from a consultant cardiologist in Sydney at the hospital where Linda was to be sent that payment for Linta could be best made through the Solomon Islands Foundation in Sydney - a registered charity, or in the alternative payment could be accepted by credit card at the hospital.
I wrote requesting details of the SIF’s bank account to advise the SFA but got no reply. Copies of all my correspondence relating to the late Linda were given to the NRH, the SFA, and to Mrs. Gretal Loice, the mother of the sick child.
The untimely passing of young Linta really upset me, and still does, and I would please urge all those in charge of medical transfer arrangements for sick patients at the NRH to have on record the full details of the SIF, including address, telephone number(s) and importantly bank details for remittances either from the NRH/MHMS or in the event some other kind donor in the future will step forward, as the SFA did.
I have written much in the past few days about the past 10-bed hospital arrangement once in place with St. Vincent Hospital in Sydney that regularly received Solomon Islands patients and treated them free of charge. Such arrangements no longer exist.
Sick patients at the NRH who are considered likely to benefit from an offshore referral are virtually in limbo, just as Linda was before the SFA stepped up to respond to my plea. The reason, all too sadly, being the MHMS budget is not provisioned to provide for offshore medical care and treatment, but it most certainly, in my view should be.
Yours sincerely
Frank Short
