The Cape Verdean government ordered a “rigorous investigation” into the medical services provided and inter-island evacuation procedures for a 14-year-old boy who eventually died, citing the “serious insinuations” associated with the case.
The announcement of the investigation was made by Prime Minister Ulisses Correia y Silva himself, hours after Republic President José María Neves defended holding a “strict investigation” on Monday afternoon. in the case and audit of the National Health System, subject to complaints.
“Conscious of the need to ensure the full clarification of all the facts concerning this event, given the seriousness of the insinuations made, considering that the government cannot bring charges or initiate processes of possible responsibility without objective and strict facts”, justifies the message published by Ulisses Correia e Silva.
An investigation “should be launched immediately” and a report “submitted to the prime minister by August 31,” adds Ulisses Correia e Silva.
“The competent authorities should order a thorough investigation into the circumstances of the evacuation and death of the teenager,” the head of state said in a message previously published on his official Facebook account, in which José María Neves refers to a phone call with the 14-year-old’s father on Monday. a boy who died at São Filipe, on the island of Fogo, on 1 August.
“He died after being transported under very difficult conditions from the island of Brava to the Francisco de Assis Regional Hospital,” the president said in the same message after several criticisms in recent days, especially on social media, about the alleged lack of medical care . the conditions were that the boy was taken by boat in São Filipe to the nearby island of Fogo.
Cape Verde does not have any public aviation facilities to provide medical evacuations, which are usually carried out through regular air and sea links, and in the case of Brava, the island does not have an airfield.
The Prime Minister’s order adds that “priority” must be given to the procedures necessary to conduct an investigation and issue a report that focuses on the medical and hospital services provided to a patient at the Brava Medical Center and at the Hospital of the São Francisco de Assis Region in Fogu, as well as the procedures for medical evacuation from the island of Brava.
In a statement released August 4, the management of the Francisco de Assis Regional Hospital in São Filipe said the teenager, who was on vacation there, was admitted to the Brava Medical Center on July 31 and stayed there for five days. “self-medication” for sore throat and fever.
“After checking the severity of the clinical condition by the medical team and performing laboratory tests that revealed the presence of severe anemia, the decision was immediately made to evacuate him to the San Francisco de Assis Regional Hospital,” the statement said, which also ensures that evacuation procedures “have taken place.” in extreme urgency.”
“The Brava Health Department did everything they could to get the emergency transport to the regional hospital required by the case, with the patient accompanied by a doctor and a nurse,” he adds.
The teenager was admitted to a hospital on the island of Fogo around midnight on August 1, and died minutes after further tests at the Praia Hospital showed “a condition of acute leukemia, thus confirming the hypothesis of an initial diagnosis of leukemia as the cause of death,” it says. in the same statement.
According to the government, the team that will lead this investigation consists of Dr. Yolanda Landim from the Agostinho Neto Hospital in Praia, who is coordinating it, and Helida Jamila Fernandez, a doctor from the same hospital, which also includes Silen Silva, head of the Maritime Security Foundation.
“Given that the health and transport services are involved, which means that supervision is not assigned to any one responsible government agency,” the prime minister explained.
In a message released on Monday, José María Neves, who was Cape Verdean Prime Minister from 2001 to 2016 by the Cape Verdean African Independence Party (PAIKV, currently in opposition), said that “urgent action needs to be taken to creating a real system of medical evacuation” in the country: “In order to prevent situations of this kind, the deterioration of the health care system and dissatisfaction with the level of care and services provided in hospitals and sanatoriums.”
He also acknowledges that “the country already has the technical and human conditions to deliver higher quality end services to users”, but that “more sophistication in the organization of work, much more efficiency in execution and more efficiency in results” are needed. .
“Care must be tested throughout the national health system. There have been many complaints, fair or unfair, from people who feel they are being poorly attended and/or mistreated by health services,” he said.
According to the President of Cape Verde, “it is necessary to do everything so that people do not lose confidence in the country’s institutions.”
“I know how much effort has gone into the medical staff at all levels and I give them credit for that. However, times are different and people are much more demanding. They want much more and better,” José Maria Neves concluded. .
Author: Lusa
Source: CM Jornal
Jane Stock is a technology author, who has written for 24 Hours World. She writes about the latest in technology news and trends, and is always on the lookout for new and innovative ways to improve his audience’s experience.
