PNG can avoid many health mistakes: Kase

Papua New Guinea is in the fortunate position that they can learn from other countries that have already gone through the process of changes of disease pattern.

Secretary for National Department of Health, Pascoe Kase made the statement in his keynote address during the 52 Medical Symposium in Alotau yesterday.

The country can avoid many mistakes that were done by others, Kase said.

"One of the mistakes that is currently killing the budgets of developed countries is a total focus on curative medicine while negleting the power of preventive medicine and health promotion in reducing the burden of non-communicable diseases," he said.

The Secretary called on all participants in the symposium to respond to key result areas (KRA) to promote healthy lifestyle.

"I believe that we need to read our National Health Plan more carefully and work harder on implementation as the call for promoting healthy lifestyles in the KRA 7 is still not properly responded to," Kase said.

He said that it was worthy to improvise and take appropriate steps to facilitate responsibility to promote health in communities.

"Let us have a closer look at the causes of non-communicable diseases," Kase said.

Meanwhile, the Secretary also emphasised on the tobacco consumption and he said the tobacoo policy will be tabled before end of this year.

The use of tobacco is rampant in the country, especially among young people, he said.

“We have taken steps to get the Tobacco Bill approved. Whilst this may be the start but not an end of means as we have to make sure of enforcing the legislation,” Kase said.

He urged everyone to take heed of health as everyone's business and take effective and inexpensive interventions to be healthy.

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