Presidential tour of government offices-President for improvements in all hospital units |07 May 2005

The President, accompanied by Minister Vincent Meriton and principal secretary Maurice Loustau-Lalanne, Friday visited the mortuary, and the physiotherapy, bio-medical engineering, and maintenance units.

President Michel was informed that two private funeral service providers could start offering mortuary and cold storage facilities for bodies when they receive the necessary equipment. The first private mortuary will be located near the Mont Fleuri cemetery on the premises presently occupied by the National Guard headquarters. Equipment for the cold storage has been ordered.

Government is making available land for the Mont Fleuri private mortuary project.
The second private operator who already owns a funeral parlour at Plaisance may also in future install facilities for an additional mortuary.

The Government is empowering the private sector to provide new mortuary facilities in the country and this will relieve pressure on the morgue at Victoria Hospital whose main function is the keeping of bodies for post-mortems and legal reasons.

The bio-medical engineering unit is where all equipment for the health centres are ordered and serviced. President Michel learned that with the rapid progress in technology, many bio-medical equipment, particularly the electronic ones, become obsolete fast and spare parts are rare.

Adjacent to the bio-medical engineering offices are the maintenance units for carpentry works and repairs of appliances such as air conditioning units. The units are responsible for maintenance and repairs in all the health centres on Mahe, Praslin, La Digue and Silhouette.

The Ministry of Health has some 650 air conditioning units which have to be serviced regularly and repairs undertaken after breakdowns.

During the meeting in the Minister’s office, President Michel strongly expressed his wish for a better working environment in all the units of the Health ministry. Friday he was referring mainly to the bio-medical engineering and the maintenance units. He also said these units, which he considered important for the delivery of improved health services in future, needed to be better organised not only to give staff a neater working environment but also for orderly functions such as requisition and repairs.  
 
In line with the outsourcing proposals he made in his Budget Speech 2005, Mr Michel said some of the maintenance works could be contracted out to the private sector. He suggested that contracts could be awarded on a regional basis for repairs on health centres in the communities to help the ministry’s maintenance staff with some of the works.

As improvements in the hospital services become more noticeable, the President has appealed to the department to remain vigilant in the fight to root out corruption and isolate the few who are out to sabotage the good work of the health staff.

He said this after he was informed of the progress of investigations into the alleged theft of medical supplies which the police retrieved from a Mont Fleuri trader.

During each visit to the Victoria Hospital the President is also briefed on new developments. At the end of Friday’s visit he went  to the staff cafeteria which became operational last month. He was also taken to see the installation of new lifts after the old ones were removed. A new air-conditioning system for the theatre will soon start functioning. The President was also told that the second and more advanced CT-scan is expected to be in place at the end of this month.

Since the beginning of this year the Ministry of Health has started reorganising its stock of medicines, ordered a list of equipment, secured the financing for new orders, improved working areas, and cleared backlog of 200 cases at the radiology unit.