The government has increased budgets for the health sector despite the struggling economic situation of the country.
This was revealed by Minister for Treasury, Ian Ling Stuckey at the Port Moresby General Hospital on Thursday, while delivering a cheque for K88million funding towards the completion of the Cancer Unit construction.
Minister Ian Ling Stuckey told the PMGH management, board and staff that in 2023, the government has increased the budget to include health care workers who will be working in the Cancer facility.
He said this shows that Marape-Rosso government is deeply committed to the health sector.
“Funding for health has increased dramatically over the last two years if you have been watching budget announcement in 2021, total health funding K1744million. The next year we’re projecting the health funding to be K2335million a 33% increase in just two years,” said Minister Ling Stuckey.
He said they committed funding enough to increase the number of nurses and doctors by 5% for the next four years and then increasing to 10% in each year once training facilities are expanded.
Meanwhile the Health Minister, Dr. Tom said the PM has made a bold statement and in the health sector, they are setting policies. Looking at the health issues in the country and like in other countries they are quite insurmountable so in his wisdom, Dr Tom has prioritize into five key issues and one of them is cancer and lifestyle diseases.
“Health shouldn’t be affordable. Health should not be something that is affordable to only a few people. PM made a policy statement that health must be accessible to everyone; no one must be left behind; everyone must be able to reach and health facility within an hour of whichever mode of transport,” he said.
Dr. Tom thanked the two ministers, the NEC and the government for making the decision on increasing funding for the cancer and heart facilities at Port Moresby General Hospital.