When the right hand does not know what the left hand is doing

Exciting stuff...isn't it? The front-page news of a new state-of-the-art hospital to be built just outside Port Moresby. About time the real needs of the people of this country were addressed. And the Americans are going to be involved, especially the prestigious Stanford University!!

I have raised the issue of  "brain drain" previously in another blog where a growing number of elites of Papua New Guinea have been inflicted with lifestyles diseases and this major announcement for such a facility is music to our ears. What boggles my mind though is how the top health bureaucrat, Health Secretary Dr Clement Malau did not know about the hospital and it is not even included in the 5/10 Year health plan.

Don't get me wrong - I love the idea but let not the pollies run away with the idea while the bureaucrats and technocrats are trying to come to grips with the enormity of such a project. Which brings me to the letter below that ran in the Post-Courier yesterday and raised some pertinent questions under the heading - IS PNG ABLE TO STAFF AND RUN STATE-OF-THE-ART HOSPITAL:-

"Allow me to comment on the state of the art hospital. Hold your horses PNG - don't be fooled by the "spin doctors". A state of the art hospital  needs state of the art patients for starters.

I have heard these superlative adjectives before from professors of medicine in the 1970's and 1980's but am unconvinced that they will change the health statistics. Building a hospital is the easy part; the hardest part is equipping and staffing it 24 hours a day, 366-days a year; year in year out, without fail.

A hospital of any size, let alone that of 300 bed one, runs on nursing and ancillary powers, not on doctor's power. Does PNG have the number of nurses and ancillary staff to run a state of the art hospital? Ok, they can be flown in from offshore. I am sure it can be done.

But we must not delude ourselves that doctors can be trained to do coronary artery  bypass surgery in three months or a radio-oncology for a similar length of time. And the beds in this hospital are not going to be free. K500 per day would be a minimum, extra for meals, medications and doctor's visits.

A 90 percent bed occupancy rate per day per year might give it a chance to survive. It will not be a teaching hospital because a patient paying the privilege of K500 a day won't be too happy to let students poke and prod his chest, abdomen and stick the fingers up the whatever.

I know I am a relic from last century but I feel sad when I see patients being turned away because they could not afford the outpatient's fees or pharmacy charges at Port Moresby General Hospital.

A. Saweri

Port Moresby

                   

Ist Cholera Case in Port Moresby General Hospital

The PNG Health Department has just confirmed the first cholera case at Port Moresby General Hospital.

While the hospital is working with the National Capital District Commission's Health Adviser, to use one of the health facilities in the city, to isolate any further incidents, people should be extra cautious.

Please take time to have a read:

City Pharmacy opens in Oro Province

When I was in Popondetta last week, I noticed that much work had been done on the Post Office building which is a focal point in the town area.

Traditionally and prior to the advent of mobile phones, the town Post Office was the central meeting place of people coming in from rural areas or around town - (1) to use the telephones (2) to check for "salim money quick" receipts (where relatives from other centres wire money through) and, (3) to collect & post mail.

The Post Office is still a popular congregating address in town and it is good to see that the City Pharmacy is piggy-backing on this popularity by setting up its Pharmacy in the Post Office premises. Not only that, the City Pharmacy has renovated the building and opened its newest branch this week in a snazzy outfit.

The new City Pharmacy will provide the small town with essential medicinal supplies and pharmaceutical products over the counter.The opening of Popondetta branch is part of City Pharmacy's strategy to ensure that much-needed medicines and health supplies are distributed through the district level.

The CEO for Popondetta Hospital recently expressed the woes of the province whereby many vulnerable people including mothers and children were finding it very difficult to get basic health care and medicines due to lack of infrastructure or just lack of medicines & health supplies in the province.

 I think the new City Pharmacy will assist in alleviating this problem.