Medical Students Donate Towels To Mental Health Hospital

The Fiji National University’s (FNU) College of Medicine, Nursing and Health Scienc­es Year Four Bachelors of Medi­cine and Surgery (MBBS) students donated more than 200 towels to the St Giles Hospital yesterday.

This was an initiative they came up with after their six weeks psy­chiatry block attachment at the mental health hospital.

Student Sera Lala said they want­ed to give back to the patients at the institution.

“For most of us it was the first time we came here and we have learned a lot in the past six weeks. One thing I have learned is that sometimes the patients just needed someone to talk to,” Ms Lala said.

“There is a need to advocate on mental health. We reached out to our friends, colleagues and family for this initiative and these towels are from everybody.

“I would like to thank the staff and nurses at St Giles Hospital because it has been a blessing for us as we learned a lot from them in terms of how to care for our pa­tients and just to be there for our patients.”

St Giles Acting Medical Superin­tendent, Kiran Gaikwad said they were thankful to the students for their efforts.

“We really appreciate what the students have done. The patients here are those who really need help because some of them have been neglected by their community,” Mr Gaikwad said.

“This is one way they are helping us help patients.”

There are more than 50 patients at St Giles Hospital with five or six new admissions every day.

The members of International Women’s Association (IWA) also joined the students in the donation of the towels.

Edited by Percy Kean

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