Health crisis : No full blood count samples being done at CWM, reagents have run out

More serious health service delivery concerns for the country from today as the CWM Hospital has put up messages that due to no reagent availability from the Fiji Pharmaceutical and Biomedical Services, all full blood count sample processing will stop until further notice.

A complete blood count is often part of a routine checkup, and it is also used to monitor a condition or treatment that may affect your blood cell counts such as infections, anemia, immune system disorders, and blood cancers.

When fijivillage News contacted Fiji Medical Association President, Doctor Alipate Vakamocea on how this is affecting services and how the doctors at public hospitals are dealing with this issue, he says the doctors will not be able to correctly diagnose anyone.

Doctor Vakamocea says the lack of the ability to do a full blood count is comparable to a car being driven with a punctured tyre.

Insert : Vakamocea On Blood Count VN Nov 21st

Doctor Vakamocea says they are yet to receive information on an estimated arrival time of the reagents for the service to start again.

He says you can use CWM as an example of the bigger problem so if it is out of stock at CWM, it will be running low throughout the entire health system.

Doctor Vakamocea says this is a major issue and it will affect the ability of doctors in the public hospitals to accurately diagnose patients and treat them.

We sent questions to the Ministry of Health this morning. They are yet to respond. They are also yet to respond on the superbugs issue at CWM Hospital, and endosamplers to do gynecology tests for women running out.