Manpower is lacking in all health care facilities in the country, says Chairman of the Special Parliamentary Committee on Health Matters, Elias Kapavore.
Shortage of manpower is one biggest issue faced by health centres and hospitals in the country. This is not conducive to the delivery of health services because it weakens the quality of services delivery especially to the rural population where the bulk of the people live.
This was one of the main concerns raised by the Member for Pomio and Chairman of the SPC on Health Matters, when he went for a consultation visit to Eastern Highlands PHA accompanied by committee member and MP for Central Bougainville, Simon Dumainu and Mul Baiyer MP Jacob Kopo Maki to visit the Goroka Provincial Hospital and other urban clinics and rural health centres outside Goroka town recently.
While on these visits, one thing that was obvious both in the urban and rural health facilities were the lack of sufficient manpower to carry out the work. Besides the Goroka Provincial Hospital the committee had dialogue with senior health workers at Lop and North Goroka urban clinicks as well as the Asaro rural hospital in the Daulo district.
This factor causes the other dilemma which is the long waiting time for patients to be attended to and treated. Many times they just leave without being attended to.
Chairman Kapavore expressed that such unfortunate situations won’t arise if the government improved on its recruitment exercise to fill in the positions for health personnel in all health care facilities around the country.
“The committee recognizes that lack of manpower is a big issue not only in Eastern Highlands province but in all health run institutions around the country. So we as the government of the day have to take this issue seriously and embark on the recruitment processes so to change the status quo, subsequently helping our people,” Kapavore said.
He added that there are many qualified health workers now operating facilities and we are thankful but this is still not enough to serve the whole population of sick people.
Another factor the committee discovered is the shortage of drugs and supplies in all facilities including the hospitals.
“Manpower to provide services in the hospital is short but also shortage of medicines. This is because the Area Medical Stores are not doing their responsibilities properly. Thus causing delays in the delivery of medicines,” Kapavore said.
Another major finding is the fact that there are not enough incinerators in the health facilities to burn rubbish from the health clinics and centres.
This can be a health hazard because the remains of human body parts from operations can pose infections and also can become a feeding ground for animals which can spread other diseases to humans.
“We took these concerns to the floor of parliament and a lot of discussions were carried out on the issue. It is our belief now that the Marape-Rosso government will sit and consider our recommendations and will come up with plans to address this issue,” said Kapavore.