CARING FOR BABIES at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital (QEH) has a high price tag.
According to head of the Department of Paediatrics Dr Clyde Cave, it can cost up to a $1/4 million per baby. He said it involved incubators, monitors, ventilators and sometimes three infusion pumps to ensure that blood flowed through each little one.
Cave explained that because of international standards, some pieces of equipment had a relatively short lifespan.
“I don’t think people realise how much is involved and the amount that goes into treating a sick baby. And for us there are challenges because medical equipment in other countries is designed to be obsolete in five to ten years . . . and we can’t to afford to replace it in that time,” he added. (TG)
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