The leader of an Australasian parliamentary delegation to Papua New Guinea is appalled at the state of Angau hospital in Lae.
New Zealand Labour MP, Steve Chadwick, has been heading a team touring parts of PNG, principally to increase its awareness of the scale of the problems posed by the country's soaring HIV/Aids levels.
Ms Chadwick says it is plain that funding intended for provincial and village health services in general is not getting through.
A former midwife, she says she was stunned to find that the public hospital in PNG's second biggest city, Lae, is falling down.
"The closed the gynnie [gynaecological] two weeks ago because a bed fell through the floorboards - the termites had eaten it. The proper maternity unit was closed well over a year ago and they have relocated into a place that is deplorable frankly, and just, sanitation that is very poor with mattresses on the floor all cramped up against each other, with basically very obvious unsanitary conditions."
