Pregnant women in Solomon Islands are being told to bring their own supplies when they go to hospital to give birth.
Photo: 123RF
Women in labour are being asked to bring their own gauze, bedsheets and latex gloves to the country's main hospital in Honiara.
RNZ Pacific understands patients have been forced to lie on the floor in corridors because of a lack of beds and doctors have resorted to administering expired drugs.
A heavily pregnant local woman told RNZ Pacific she was shocked when she was told by the hospital that she needed to buy her own maternity supplies.
Sources at the hospital confirmed they had been asking mothers to bring their own supplies and there were shortages in other parts of the hospital.
The outpatients area at the National Referral Hospital in Honiara, Solomon Islands. Photo: RNZ/Pacific Koroi Hawkins
Last month, hospital executives blamed a change in procurement practices, promising they would be resolved soon.