Morobe Provincial Health Authority

Emotional opening of new Umba Health Post

Umba women openly wept when representatives from the Morobe Provincial Health Authority and Australia’s Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade handed over the K5.1 million facility.

Menyamya has always been referred to as the “back page” of Morobe; it would take over 8 hours to reach the district due to the deteriorated state of the road from Bulolo and the eroded, landslip-prone mountains of Watut and Menyamya.

Health service costly: Dr Binga

Chief executive officer of the Morobe Provincial Health Authority, Dr Kipas Binga, issued this warning when receiving the K3.5 million cheque from the Morobe Provincial Government yesterday in Lae.

“For instance, the unit cost to provide appendicetomy (removing appendix) is costing the government K39,000. For trauma and head injuries, the cost is K56,000 for one patient.

MoPHA board eyes income streams

Chairman of the board, David Wissink, said this is now possible after receiving the title of the land opposite the ANGAU Memorial Provincial Hospital. 

“We’ve finally got land titles to the ground across the street here,” said Wissink after the board’s swearing in yesterday.

“We can start to put in place some things that will generate some money. That’ll be one of the things on the board’s agenda which is, ‘Ok, what are we going to do with this land?’ We all have a few ideas.

MoPHA board sworn in

The nine board members were called up by the principal legal officer of the National Department of Health, Margret Asinimbu, to take their oaths.

Local business sector representative, David Wissink, will be chairing the board for the second time while the board’s deputy chair is newcomer and PNG’s chief radiologist, Dr Dora Lenturut-Katal, who is representing the Department of Health.

Old ANGAU morgue to be closed

Chief executive officer, Dr Kipas Binga, advised that there will be no drop off or pickup of bodies during that time.

“We ask the public to adhere to this and make prior arrangements to remove the bodies of their loved ones from the morgue before the scheduled date, or after.

“Kindly abide by this notice for the smooth transition of the use of the old morgue to the new one.”

ANGAU conducts clinical checklist

The National Health Service Standards toolkit paves the way for the implementation of the National Health Plan 2021-2030.

The Morobe Provincial Health Authority is the first PHA to conduct its National Health Service Standards workshop – from July17th-21st – following the advocacy workshop of the national health plan in Madang last year.

Morobe PHA’s chief executive officer, Dr Kipas Binga, said the first workshop was for staff at the ANGAU Memorial Provincial Hospital while a second one is being planned for workers in public health.

K50mil needed to run ANGAU: CEO

This year they received over K40 million while chief executive officer of the Morobe Provincial Health Authority, Dr Kipas Binga, said once completed, the redeveloped ANGAU would require an estimated amount of K50 million to run it.

“The operational budget consists of personal emoluments (PE), goods and services, fuel, and other normal operations,” said Dr Binga.

ECG Machines For District Hospitals

Braun District Hospital, a level 4 hospital under the National Health Service Standards in the Finschhafen District, and Etep Rural Hospital, a level 3 hospital in Tewai-Siassi of Morobe Province, will be receiving an ECG each, donated by Rotary Australia.

This follows a presentation last Friday, 10th June to the Secretary of the Lutheran Health Services, Katu Yapi, by the Morobe Provincial Health Authority (MoPHA) chairman, David Wissink.

Proper Awareness Needed For Childhood Cancer

One of the major issues raised was addressing Childhood Cancer in the country.

Worldwide about 400, 000 children aged from zero to 18 years of age are diagnosed each year with cancer. According to PMGH, it is estimated that one in 6500 children will have cancer.

In PNG, it is estimated that there are three million children within that age and the hospital sees 500 children per year.

PMGH Paediatrician, Dr. Gwenda Anga said as per hospital reports, PMGH is not seeing over 200 children per year as this is due to many reasons.

Save 10,000 Toes campaign launched

The campaign is an initiative of the church’s health ministries, which will involve the church membership in fighting against non-communicable diseases (NCDs) in partnership with health workers within the government and other stakeholders.

The campaign was launched at the church’s head office in Lae on Wednesday, March 23rd, by the Morobe Provincial Health Authority chief executive officer, Dr Kipas Binga.

The event was witnessed by the Honorary Consul to New Zealand, Zoe Harrison, and Consul General for the Australian Consulate, Mark Foxe.