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http://www.solomontimes.com/news.aspx?nwID=3782

(Note:  When they mention the Number Nine Hospital, they mean the National Referral Hospital, the biggest hospital in the Solomons)

Tuesday, March 24, 2009 8:16 AM

Unpaid Water Bills Results in Closure of Clinics

All City Council Clinics in Honiara have been closed, some as far back as Wednesday last week due to a mass disconnection of water by the Solomon Islands Water Authority, SIWA.

The notice of a mass water disconnection exercise, which SIWA had published in the print media a few weeks ago, is being enforced on those who fail to pay up their outstanding water bills.

Clinics within the Honiara City, which provides medical services to thousands of people in Honiara, have also been closed. All eight Honiara City Council Clinics in the capital owe the SIWA about $212,000 in outstanding water bills.

Reports say that the situation will remain until the Honiara City Council clears up all its water bills and water is restored to the clinics.

Meanwhile, a mother who was turned away by nurses at the Rove Clinic, Georgiana Sogote'e has expressed dissatisfaction with the Honiara City Council for allowing the closure of essential health services to the people at a time when a lot of people have complained of ill health.

Mrs Sogote'e says bad weather breeds sickness and the closure of the clinics would mean over crowding at the Number Nine hospital outpatient.

She said a lot of people need medical care, judging from the number of people that were turned away from Rove clinic this morning.

Mrs Sogote'e says she hopes nurses at the Number Nine outpatient understand the situation by not turning away people from the hospital.

She urges the Honiara City Council to pay up its bills to SIWA as soon as possible to allow the clinics to reopen.

SIWA's senior customer service officer Freda Unusi told SIBC News yesterday that the last time they heard from the Honiara City Council and the Ministry of Home Affairs about their efforts to settle the arrears was on Friday.

Mrs Unusi confirms that disconnection of water services to all the clinics was made last Wednesday.

She says water to the clinics will remain cut until the full outstanding bill has been paid.

Copyright @ 2009. SIBC News. All Rights Reserved.

I've heard about things like that on Aussie talk shows:)  Probably happens in the U.S. too.

Another unpleasant show stopper comes when the Solomons hospital phones are cut off (also due to unpaid bills).  The National Referral Hospital depends on telepathology services from overseas which cannot be done without a phone/email connection.

(Sometimes power is cut off too, putting a stop to surgeries, whereby only urgent ones are scheduled to begin with, due to the untenable patient load.)

Amazingly, the show keeps going on.  Hospital staff and patients deal roll with the punches and deal.

That is a very cool idea and something that seems to obvious (but I had never thought of…)