Pascoe Kase

Kase formally vacates post

He was accorded a small farewell ceremony by Department staff and stakeholder representatives on Monday 27th January at the Holiday Inn in Port Moresby.

Kase took the opportunity to highlight some of his achievements and some of the plans which are yet to be accomplished.  

Among some of the major achievements were:   

Health dept achievements highlighted

Secretary Pascoe Kase said in December 2019, the Minister for Health and HIV/AIDS, Jelta Wong, and Prime Minister James Marape announced at the opening of the new health facilities developments in Tari Provincial Hospital, Cabinet decisions to build new Hela and West New Britain provincial public hospitals.

“This is a welcome announcement for the two provinces, which will now make specialist medical services more accessible to the people,” Kase said in a statement.

Health dept confirms measles in provinces

A three-year-old girl from Gulf Province and a 23-year-old male from New Ireland were diagnosed with measles and were confirmed positive on the 22nd of December, 2019.

In a press conference today, Secretary for Health, Pascoe Kase, confirmed the detection of two measles cases in Gulf and New Ireland Province since their last update in December 2019.

Kavieng inmate diagnosed with measles

 

According to provincial disease control officer Maria Sabok, the result came from tests done at the Central Public Health laboratory in Port Moresby recently.

Sabok said health workers carried out a mass vaccination on 335 inmates including 154 officers and their families, and reported this case.

The inmate has been vaccinated.

She told TV Wan news that they have enough vaccines to continue the program.

The National Department of Health also reported measles being detected in the Gulf Province.

Health dept alerts public on measles

Secretary for Health, Pascoe Kase, made this announcement during a media conference held on Friday 13th December at the National Health Office in Port Moresby.

Secretary Kase, in collaboration with the World Health Organisation’s and UNICEF PNG’s representatives, made statements on the status of measles in PNG and the Pacific Region and urged the public to be alert and not let their guards down.

Kase alerted the public on the importance of immunisation for children due to the recent outbreak of measles in the region, including Samoa, Fiji, Tonga and Australia.

NCD Health Services no longer under NDoH

NCD Health Services now falls under the management of the city authority.

For many years Port Moresby’s health services have suffered with patients paying the price of this administrative blunder.

Management and running of most of the provincial clinics and health centres across the country fall directly under their provincial governments but this has not been the case for Port Moresby clinics and health centres.

Secretary for Health Pascoe Kase said due to this, provision of health services in the nation’s capital has performed below required indicators.

3.2 million children vaccinated

The biggest polio vaccination campaign to be implemented in PNG mobilised more than 9,000 health workers and volunteers.

“As of 31 October 2018, we have immunised 3,112,035 children under 15 years old against polio, and this had been made possible through the hard work and dedication of our polio workers on the ground,” said the Secretary of the National Department of Health (NDOH), Pascoe Kase.

“I commend the leadership of the provincial health agencies and emergency operations coordinators for effectively launching and managing a very challenging response operations.”

Health secretary concerned over ‘ill-informed comments’

In a statement, Secretary Pascoe Kase while it was true that there were limited supply levels of Anti-Retroviral Therapy (ART) drugs in the Department’s central stores, this was for two reasons.

“The first is that all drugs are distributed by the HIV Program Teams to treatment centres around the country. It is vitally important that adequate levels of these drugs are maintained at clinics close to the patient groups to ensure continuity of supply,” stated Kase.

Health Minister and Secretary visit PNGIMR

On Friday 24th November, the delegation was led by the Health Minister Puka Temu and Secretary of Health Pascoe Kase.

In welcoming the Minister and Secretary, Acting Director, Dr William Pomat said that it was an honour to have the Minister and Secretary to visit and for staff to report on IMR’s research achievements, challenges and solutions in order to save Papua New Guinean lives.

All-out war on TB!

The theme is “STOP TB IN WNB AND STOP TB IN PNG”.                

PNG and West New Britain Province are sitting on the Multi-drug-resistant tuberculosis (MDR-TB) time bomb.

West New Britain Provincial Health Authority and NDOH are meeting regularly to address the immediate concerns and develop the long term 5 year strategic action plan.

Secretary of NDOH, Pascoe Kase, and a team of TB specialists are now on board to address the immediate measures and to make sure that there is control of this potential explosion.