Department of Health

Health workforce crisis

It was an opportunity for the National Capital District Provincial Health Authority and the Port Moresby General Hospital management to meet in the hope of setting the pace on improving health service delivery to the 1 million plus residents of the NCD and Central Province and all who seek medical assistance from Port Moresby General Hospital.  

Increase Vaccination Rollout: PM

He said this at a dinner on 28th February, hosted for CEOs of PHAs, COVID-19 Task Force, NDoH and partners who are in Port Moresby for a week-long planning workshop on COVID-19 vaccine rollout in the provinces.

Prime Minister Marape said the workshop is timely when PNG will conduct its 2022 National General Elections amid the pandemic. 
He said the country could not have survived the pandemic without the efforts put in by the cadre of health care workers in the provinces and healthcare establishments.

Extend Morgue Space: PM

Prime Minister James Marape said this is the middle ground in responding to the huge public outcry against compulsory vaccination and a deep hesitancy in public vaccination.

He emphasized that no one will be forcing Papua New Guineans to get vaccinated.

While speaking to the National Control Centre meeting recently, the Prime Minister said vaccination will remain voluntary, but Papua New Guineans must start to seriously understand that they will die faster if they do not get vaccinated.

PNG reports over 250 new cases

Incident Manager of the Department of Health, Dr Melinda Susapu, said this in her recent COVID-19 update.

Dr Susapu said the death was reported in the National Capital District.

Also, 257 new cases were reported in three provinces and the NCD in the last 48 hours.

Western Province reported 219 news cases, NCD reported sixteen and East Sepik and Southern Highlands reported eleven new cases each.

The total number of reported cases stands at 6,857.

Dr Susapu said: “This is from the 67,741 tests conducted in the last year.”

Health Dept begins school hygiene promotion

The Health Promotion and Education branch started the first week of health hygiene awareness on Monday 2nd March and ended it on Friday 6th March at St. John’s Catholic Primary School in Tokarara.

The team leader for the Health Promotion and Education under the Coronavirus Communication cluster, Glenda Suagu said the health promotion team would like to get to the schools, first because overcrowding in schools makes students and teachers most vulnerable to any communicable disease.

Public campaign by Health Dept

This comes especially at a time when the government has heavily invested in roads and infrastructure while there has been a notable increase in the incidence of non-communicable diseases.

The Department of Health has launched a public campaign to inform people that prevention is important, and this includes lifestyle changes.

Health Secretary Pascoe Kase said the health system provides a mix of responses and treatments, whether it is primary health care from an aid post or health centre or sophisticated surgical interventions from a tertiary hospital.

Polio strategies developed

These strategies came about following lessons learnt in the last 100 days of the emergency response.

The polio outbreak response plan of Papua New Guinea focuses on three main components: 

  • Supplementary immunisation activities
  • Enhanced surveillance; and
  • Communication

The supplementary immunisation activities have seen two national immunisation campaigns targeting more than 3.26 million children under 15 years old across 22 provinces.

Taking antibiotics when not needed…

This is the take home message disseminated by the Department of Health in the weeklong awareness against the misuse of antibiotics.

Experts say every year, at least 700,000 people around the world die from infections with superbugs that are resistant to antibiotics – and this is predicted to rise to 10 million by 2050.

Taking antibiotics when you do not need them speeds up antibiotic resistance.

PM O’Neill commissions Nipa Hospital

The hospital was built by Niugini Builders Construction (NBC) at a cost of K25.3 million. The National Government gave K15m, K6m from SHP Provincial Government, K4m from Kumul Petroleum Holdings Ltd and K300,000 from the Nipa district.

O'Neill while speaking at the commissioning, commended the contractor for the job we'll done and praised them for their commitment.

"We need such contractors in the country who worked hard and complete job using limited resources," says O'Neill.

He added that the hospital Will serve the people of Nipa and the surrounding communities.

Sapuri praises Muthuvel for bringing medical ship to Kimbe

 

“Thank you so much for your time and effort in progressing our Province and importantly for supporting me and our team in WNBPHA.

“Your support has significantly progressed our development in the health sector.

“Once again we would require your support to bring Australian Doctors International to WNB to assist with Rural Health Programs.”