Health professionals in PNG want action over hospital crisis
Health professionals in Goroka, PNG, have had enough in their call for action by board and management of public health about the critical shortage of supplies and staff.
Transcript
A petition by health professionals will be presented to the government demanding the removal of the board and management of Papua New Guinea's Goroka Base Hospital.
Staff are still providing critical care services at the hospital, despite the withdrawal of some services as a protest at ongoing staff shortages and a lack of critical material.
The head of the Doctors Association, Kauve Pomat, told Johnny Blades about the situation.
KAUVE POMAT: Over the years, things have been unaddressed, and it's gotten to a stage where, I guess, the staff could not take it anymore. I've basically come as they left to assess what's the situation, whether they've got reasonable arguments. And from the presentation I've heard they appear to be reasonable arguments. I will need to see the other side also tomorrow, and I will try and weigh up. But, basically, from the association viewpoint, I'm supporting them on the grounds that as a industrial union, we really fight for members' remuneration packages and patient privileges. But that professional group has not just taken this action on individual remuneration packages - they have taken it up on the services that are being provided to the people.
JOHNNY BLADES: The problems that the hospital has been facing are things that a lot of the hospitals around Papua New Guinea are also facing. Is it the board and management's fault in your view?
KP: I think you are correct. I think it's a national issue, but the Eastern Highlands, of which Goroka Base Hospital comes under, is a pilot project of the provincial health system that's been put in. The Eastern Highlands province, Milne Bay and the Western Highlands province are the three pilot project provinces. And so by virtue of that, you would be expecting better funding and a closer control of how things are being handled.
JB: OK. So, really, things have just reached critical mass?
KP: That's right, according to the staff. An example they gave was one woman from a rural area in the Eastern Highlands, Okapa, was rushed into the hospital with an abdominal stab wound. All they could do was stabilise the shock. They could not operate because of the situation with a lack of equipment and the necessary medical consumables. They had to rush her to Kundiawa in the adjoining Chimbu province, and she died at the doorstep of Kundiawa Hospital.
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