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Buka General Hospital receives ECG machine

Bougainville Mineral Investments (BMI) Limited, an exploration company in Bougainville presented an Electrocardiogram (ECG) machine to the Buka General Hospital today.

This machine has been kindly donated by Gold Coast University Hospital and BMI Ltd will be partnering with them to meet the cost of transporting these vital machines to Bougainville.

Dr. Mathias Tovilu of Buka General Hospital when receiving the machine expressed his gratitude for the kind donation as the hospital needed such equipment.

“I would like to express my happiness that now we have two ECG machines, one was presented two weeks ago, and this is the second one so far. We have had no ECG machines since ours broke down, so we will be making full use of these machines to check our patients,” he said.

Dr. Tovilu added that Bougainville continues to be faced with lifestyle diseases and these machines will greatly assist to diagnose patients with heart problems and it was very much appreciated.

BMI Limited representative Clayton Burgess in presenting the machine said BMI while working with the communities in Taonita-Teop, has seen that every hospital in Bougainville needs assistance and they have reached out to help.

Director for BMI Ltd Paul Ryan when seeing the need, had talked to Major (Retired) George Friend OAM, Past President RC of Broadwater Southport in Australia, which resulted in the donation of medical supplies and equipment. BMI has kindly facilitated the transport and delivery of these life saving medical supplies and equipment to Bougainville.

These medical supplies and equipment generously gifted through the Rotary Club of Broadwater Southport (on Queensland’s Gold Coast) includes14 pallets of surplus Personal Protection Equipment (PPE) from the Australian Defence Force (ADF) and generously donated life changing 18 ECG machines from the Gold Coast University Hospital.

This is part of the exploration company’s initiatives to support and work closely with stakeholders in Bougainville and it is the second ECG machine presented to the doctors at the hospital.

“BMI would like to work in partnership with stakeholders in Bougainville by increasing the level of service so that it benefits us all – it could be a Bougainvillean, a geologist or an investor that may fall sick and need these services,” Burgess said. 

The ECG machine is an important equipment used by doctors to monitor the heart and diagnose heart conditions such as arrythmias, heart attacks and other cardiac abnormalities, and the machines donated will assist in diagnosing heart problems.

Meanwhile, the Bougainville Executive Council has approved K20 million to address both immediate and long-term improvements in health service delivery at the hospital. Additionally, during this week’s ABG Leaders Symposium, it was resolved that the Public Service and Health Ministries collaborate to expedite the placement of a medical doctor at Arawa Hospital. 

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