A Mother is claiming that a doctor at Nausori Health Centre had prescribed wrong medicine for her five-year-old daughter and also did not have proper medical equipment.
Jasvindar Singh has told Fijivillage that he took her daughter to the Nausori Health Centre at 11pm Monday as she had severe ear pain.
Singh says the general practitioner in charge examined her and she was shocked to see the doctor did not have proper equipment to observe the inner ear.
She says the doctor used her touch screen mobile phone to view her daughter’s internal ear.
Singh adds the general practitioner prescribed tetracycline ear drop and also informed her that at that hour, it was not available at the Nausori Health Centre.
She says her daughter was given Elixir mixture but she was not relieved and kept crying and struggling in agony and sharp ear pain.
She says at 7am the next day, she took the prescription to the Nakasi Health Centre to get the medication.
She said her daughter was vomiting and started to shiver.
The mother says the Doctor in charge immediately examined her child and she was later told by medical officials in Nakasi that the doctor at Nausori Health Centre had prescribed the wrong medicine.
She adds that the doctors told her that tetracycline is an eye ointment and not an eardrop.
Singh has made a plea to the Minister of Health to fully investigate this matter of concern.
She says that just being apologetic does not make up everything and it is high time for general practitioners to reflect on their weak areas and improve the delivery of their services.
Meanwhile, the Ministry of Health and Medical Services is looking into the matter and will contact Singh when their investigation is complete.
The Ministry says if as a result of those investigations, they identify the need to make any changes to their services, they will do so.
However, the Ministry says at this point, they can confirm that Tetracycline is appropriate for use as both an eye drop and an ear drop.
