Prime Minister James Marape has committed to gift the people of PNG with an improved health system at its 50th independence Golden Jubilee.
"The lives of our people will not be compromised.
"We will give you the top priority. The greatest gift to our people as we celebrate 50 years of nationhood will be to improve our health system.
"We are committed to upgrading 21 provincial hospitals and a hospital for the Autonomous Region of Bougainville. We must review which hospitals are on track as far as construction is concerned.
"Our commitment is that by 2025 most of the 21 provincial hospitals and one AROB hospital are either completed or on their way to being completed as the nation turn 50 years old."
The Prime Minister said the Government must ensure that a health facility is within one hour walk, one hour by boat, one hour by plane and one hour by truck.
"It simply means that health services must be accessible to our people. It means that an aid post, health center, district hospital or provincial hospital or a specialist hospital must be within one hour reach by our people by 2025."
He said by 2025, the Government do not want Papua New Guineans to go overseas looking for health services.
"We worked hard to establish to invest into building the Port Moresby Heart Facility, and the Lae cancer facility.
"We must now build more facilities for kidney and cancer."
He stressed that there is a major demand for tertiary health care in heart, kidney, and all forms of cancer.
"We must respond to this demand. We must be able to do open heart patient care, dialysis, and transplants in our facilities, complemented by highly trained professionals."