The Emergency Department at the Tupua Tamasese Meaole Hospital in Motootua is now back in operation with a much neater and cleaner look after weeks of renovations costing over $200,000.

Samoa Observer was invited to visit the hospital on Wednesday to capture the new environment at the Emergency Department by a health official although a request for an interview was not successful as of press time.

Meanwhile, the new Emergency Department has been completely renovated providing much fresher air for both patients and staff, damaged ceilings and sinks have been repaired while walls and rooms have been refurbished.

Since September this year, the Ministry was in the process of renovating the Emergency Department - an extensive process that has involved stripping the mouldy ceilings, repainting the walls, replacing fixtures and installing new split air-conditioning units.

Local contractors with the Ministry of Health's (M.O.H.) maintenance sector undertook corrective measures as an intervention to long standing infrastructural issues experienced within the Emergency Department.

In a previous interview with this newspaper,  Atoa Dr. Glenn Fatupaito who was the Acting Director General of Health at the time said they were aware of the issues with the hospital facilities.

He added that cost the Ministry more than $200,000 for the repairs. It costs $33,000 for each of the big air-conditioning units.

"The Ministry strives to do its very best to address all the arising infrastructural issues. This has been made evident by the gradual replacement of an existing and widely malfunctional central air con system with split air conditioning units," he said.

"This air-conditioning replacement has been extended widely across the central TTMH hospital including to the inpatient wards, rooms which are or are currently in the process of being fitted with individual (split unit) air conditioning units, with patients comfort and safety being kept in mind.  

"That's one thing too, is that the Ministry doesn't have the budget to buy the assets so we have to wait until the financial year and we wait every two to three months and so we submitted an urgent application.

"Yes we are aware of arising air-condition issues within the hospital. We experience a high degree of wear and tear within the extensive hospital infrastructure due to the 24 hour services provided and constant high volumes of patient traffic."

Meanwhile, recently installed air conditioning units are under warranty with external local suppliers, which means these external suppliers are also reverted to and relied on to respond to the Ministry's requests for servicing.

The AMSS Division under the leadership of the ACEO AMSS responds daily to ongoing or arising issues within all Hospitals throughout the Ministry, with reports regularly issued to the office of the DG for pertinent matters and ongoing issues that need urgent rectification, Dr. Fatupaito explained.

Samoa Observer in September visited the Emergency Department under construction and witnessed the ceilings being removed and restructured - Now it has completely changed.

The Emergency Department was moved next door within the same building, while the outpatient has returned to the old outpatient in the old hospital building.

According to Dr. Fatupaito, renovation plans for the outpatient were also in discussions.

Asked about expanding the renovation works to the other wards experiencing similar concerns such as the maternity ward, Dr. Fatupaito said 

"Ideally we want to but it's a matter of where to move the patients to because it's always a full house everyday here at the hospital," he said.

"Unlike other government ministries which closes at 5pm, ours is 24 hours which means the aircon is always running."