Results for Vaiola Hospital

A 26-year-old man from Matahau is in critical conditiona at Vaiola Hospital. A 19-year-old has been arrested and charged with grievous bodily harm.

Two ambulances and equipment were handed over today, 4 May to the Ministry of Health from the Rotary Club of Nuku’alofa.

A prisoner, Mikaele Hoponoa Pahulu (41) is charged with manslaughter in the death of Nafetalai Latu (71), who was a patient at the Psychiatric Ward in Vaiola Hospital in 2019.

CoViD-19 tests are now being offered at Vaiola Hospital for travellers after the Health Services regulation to include CoViD-19 test fees was Gazetted yesterday afternoon.

Mikaele Hoponoa Pahulu (40) was sentenced to three-years imprisonment for beating up a 71-year-old patient at the Psychiatric Ward in Vaiola Hospital. The victim, who suffered a severe head injury, remains paralysed and is fed via nasogastric tube.

Time has given Tonga a great opportunity to prepare itself for the virus and any cases that it might produce. The question is, has this time been used wisely and with urgency to prepare Tonga for the future risks? Those risks, however small, exist even now. Aid money is coming in. Using that to build up the capacity of the health system now means that this can be kept for the future. Wouldn’t it be great if Vaiola were to have a state-of-the-art five-bed ICU that can treat anyone who needs that level of care even after CoViD-19 abates? The staff can do it, if only the facility is there. And it could be. And so we await the arrival of the virus. 
I hope Tonga is well prepared when it does.... - Dr Russ Schedlich

Tonga’s two weeks isolation from 23 March, in an effort to stop the CoViD-19 from entering the country, is buying time for Health authorities to prepare for a possible influx of the deadly virus when borders re-open. But there are mixed reactions from the community while Tonga remains in isolation from the world.

Tonga does not have any cases of coronavirus COVID-19 the Vaiola Hospital confirmed this evening. A doctor said that the second test on a person with pneumonia that was sent to New Zealand on Saturday had returned a negative result today.

When Dr Duke Mataka became Tonga’s Ophthalmologist in 2018, he filled a post that had been vacant for a decade following the departure of Dr Afu Taumoepeau. Last year alone they carried out 500 operations, mainly cataract treatments.