The Buka General Hospital in Papua New Guinea's autonomous Bougainville region has scaled down its operations after its water pump was stolen.
Buka Town in Bougainville, Papua New Guinea Photo: RNZI / Don Wiseman
The director of medical services, Dr Tommy Wotsia, says the outage has affected the hospital's operating theatre, the pathology department and sterilising unit.
He says the hospital has cancelled all operations in those departments until the water pump is returned or a new one is installed, and medical staff would only attend to serious emergency cases.
This is the fourth water pump to be stolen from the hospital which has raised questions about the credibility of the security personnel engaged by the hospital.
Dr Wotsia has appealed to the public to respect hospital property as it's there to save lives.
