The Australian Medical Assistance Team (AUSMAT) has started transporting supplies for COVID-19 to 10 most affected provinces, using a Royal Australian Air Force cargo aircraft.
Each of these provinces will be receiving 3-tonnes of supplies each, comprising Personal Protective Equipment, oxygen concentrators and essential medicine.
Most of these cargo are taken from the National Control Centre warehouse in Port Moresby, but there’s also some supplies brought by the AUSMAT team for the different hospitals, that are also being delivered.
At the weekend, they dropped the supplies in Goroka in Eastern Highlands, Lae in Morobe, Madang and Mt Hagen in the Western Highlands Province.
There were five bricks containing these supplies dropped in Mt Hagen, which were for Western Highlands, Southern Highlands, Jiwaka, Chimbu, and Enga, while two more bricks for NCD and Central, will be delivered by road.
AUSMAT came into the country three weeks ago upon the request of the PNG Government to help address the COVID-19 pandemic. Its leadership identified logistics, including transportation as an ongoing issue in the health sector, which can impact the overall outcome of a patient’s recovery.
There are currently eight clinical members of the AUSMAT team in the country including team leader, Dr. Mark Little.
Dr Little explained that they had also brought logistics experts.
“The AUSMAT team travelled to Goroka with a biomedical engineer who is helping Goroka General Hospital with checking of its installation of oxygen concentrators and maintenance of these equipment so that they are working properly,’’ said Dr. Little.
The other team members include government officials to work with the Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade to ensure the AUSMAT team achieves its purpose while in the country.
The team leaders, Dr Little (emergency physician and clinical toxicologist), John Piispanen ( Environmental Health Officer and Public Health Specialist) and Angie Jackson (Emergency Nurse Practitioner and Midwife) have been in the country in August last year as well as in March this year for the second wave and again this time around for the third wave of COVID-19.
“At the Port Moresby General Hospital, they are not only helping in the clinical and Infection Prevention Control areas, but also with the leadership of the hospital, helping to make sure IPC (Infection Prevention Control) is good,’’ said Dr Little.
Dr Little and Mr Piispanen said they were impressed with the Goroka Hospital staff in how they were managing.
“This surge is a lot worse. It has many deaths. The good news, however, is that compared to last week, Goroka looks better, although it is in a bad situation. They’re organized and the leadership there is very good,’’ said Dr Little.
AUSMAT assistance is available to other provinces as well if needed.
The Deputy Pandemic Controller Dr Daoni Esorom thanked the Australia Government, AUSMAT and the ADF for the continuous support to PNG Pandemic Response.