The National Referral Hospital (NRH) would like to sincerely express heartfelt appreciation to Medical Pantry, an Australian Charity with a commitment to the distribution of unused medical supplies and equipment to underserved communities, for providing a sum of 220,000 N95 masks to the hospital days leading up to 2nd wave of COVID-19.
The N95 masks are amongst key personal protective equipment necessary in health facility settings, especially in operating theatres and wards to protect the spread of infectious diseases between patients and health workers.
The mobilization and delivery of the masks was made possible through the ongoing networking and friendship between NRH’s Dr Kaeni Agiomea, Head of the Anaesthesia Department, and counterpart in Australia Dr Phil Blum.
Dr. Phil Blum then reached out to the Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Medical Pantry Dr. Martin Nguyen who swiftly responded with the provision of the masks.
Dr. George Malefoasi, Chief Executive Officer of NRH, thanked Dr Martin Nguyen of Medical Pantry for his positive response to the request for the face masks but also for the swift delivery, as these masks were of high demand and use by health workers when the hospital was managing tens of COVID-19 patients.
“These masks also served well our surgeons when conducting surgery and general anaesthesia at our operating theatres reducing to a large extent the risks of spread of COVID-19 but also other infectious diseases said Dr. Malefoasi.
He also acknowledged the ongoing working relationship between Dr Agiomea and Dr Blum describing it as very fruitful and beneficial to the hospital.
The support of 220,000 N95 masks is not the first from Medical Pantry. They have also provided 50,000N95 masks under similar arrangements and with Australia Society for Anaesthetics (ASA) who met costs of shipping the masks from Melbourne to Honiara.
-MHMS Press