“Maybe the health workers were at fault”- Health ACEO

By Talaia Mika

APIA, SAMOA – 30 MARCH 2022: The Acting Director of the Ministry of Health has admitted that the health workers at Poutasi district hospital may have been at fault in how a sixty-seven-year-old male patient was treated last weekend.

The patient was a positive community case who was isolated at home. When he came to the district hospital seeking treatment, he was denied access to the hospital and was given oxygen treatment at the gate outside of the security guard’s post.

The 67 year old was accompanied by his daughter who took a photo of her father (see photo in this story) receiving the treatment in the open, posted it on social media to a lot of negative feedback.

Tagaloa Dr. Robert Thomsen told a media conference this week that the health employees may have been at fault.

“Everyone makes mistakes and to make it short, the Poutasi health workers may have also been at fault with this issue,” he said.

“But we explained properly to the girl who made the post about the reasons why we couldn’t let her father inside but maybe she just wanted her 15 minutes of fame.”

Tagaloa explained that tents have been set-up at the gates of all district hospitals to treat Covid-19 related patients who cannot be allowed inside the hospitals.

However, it was obvious from the photograph that the Poutasi district hospital where the old man was treated, did not have such a tent.