Dili, December 17, 2024 (Média DEmocracia) – The Guido Valadares National Hospital through its Executive Director and members of the Board of Directors held a press conference to clarify the statements of Dr. Rui Maria de Araújo, in Grade’s interview on GMN television about “CT Scan Equipment and Medicines Without Dobutamine”.
In relation to this declaration, the Executive Director of HNGV together with the Board of Directors rejects the declaration of Dr. Rui Maria de Araújo which was broadcast on the GMN television channel on Friday, (13/12/2024).
HNGV Executive Director Cecilia Barros Mendonça said that currently the CT scan machine at HNGV is still constrained by its umbilical cord, but SWI can already serve patients in urgent conditions.
“As conveyed by Dr. Rui Maria de Araújo who is also a Former Prime Minister on GMN TV regarding the CT scan machine that is now broken and no longer functioning or not available, it is true that the CT scan machine now has a little problem, because the umbilical cord is almost broken, so HNGV only provides CT scan services to urgent patients.” Said the Executive Director of HNGV
She emphasized that the problem of the rope almost breaking did not mean that the scan had to be stopped for patients in urgent conditions.
“But we are not saying to stop completely or not, but we do it because we make CT scans for patients who really need it urgently, because we know the cord of the device has started to break, so we save the condition. That’s why doctors and medical personnel are allowed, so we do this, so we limit it but it doesn’t mean to stop completely.” She said.
She added that in November there were 459 patients undergoing CT scans at HNGV, and last week there were still patients undergoing scans to determine their condition.
“In November we CT Scanned 459 patients, in December until last Friday there were 89 patients, this is temporary data, meaning it is still ongoing, if it has not started, it means there is no data for November and December, but until Friday December there were already 89 patients, this is what we want to convey to the public so that they know the correct information,” She added.
In addition, she continued, the CT scan examination process carried out on patients is adjusted to the patient’s condition.
“This CT scan is the last one, UDG, X-ray and so on have been done, the doctor asked the patient who really needs a CT scan to be done. What is clear is only for urgent cases, not close to everyone, depending on demand, so the facilitation and services continue,” She added.
In addition, regarding the situation where the umbilical cord of the CT scan machine almost broke, this just happened last week.
“This condition occurred less than a month, maybe about a week, because the last treatment was on November 24, after this treatment we were able to detect the umbilical cord for about two to three weeks,” She continued.
So far the service is running, the HNGV Directive Board published the November to December data on Friday last week.
She further emphasized that currently HNGV is carrying out the provision process to see the condition of the umbilical cord from the CT scan results.
“Currently the provision process is underway, the process is ongoing because we cannot compare goods in this country, must be sent to Singapore, Indonesia or Malaysia which we are now processing to Singapore, both countries the rope has not changed but the process is ongoing, it could be hold to waiit for the entire process.” She said.
Meanwhile, the CT scan machine used at HNGV was almost 7 years old, so HNGV did not buy the machine but only bought the cable to replace the machine that was almost broken.
She also informed that HNGV has prepared 20 million to buy back the rope in Singapore.
“HNGV lacks 20 million to buy rope, a week ago the company sent money here and we processed 17 million, the Oceano company is from Singapore because it is not available in our country, there is only one CT scan machine at HNGV.” She said.
Moreover, HNGV has not yet provided funding for 2025 to purchase a CT scan machine, but the plan is to purchase an MRIX machine because HNGV MRI is only 0v5 tedla, so the plan is only an MRI machine with a slightly larger scale and capacity.
Reported by : Estefania
Picture by : Estefania