When The Siren Wakes You Up

When a siren wakes you in the night every hour of every day during this Christmas, someone needs help from St John and Port Moresby General Hospital.

Sadly, Christmas brings no respite for the stretcher of an ambulance, nor the bed of a hospital. POMGEN and St John were wishing for the best Christmas gift this year was for you to celebrate responsibly and stay safe.

The festive season becomes hectic for the ambulance service and public hospitals because, extra to the routine emergencies especially attending to COVID-19 cases, they have to attend to people with multiple injuries.

“These ‘celebrated-too-big’ type of injuries are nearly always caused by people getting overexcited and drinking too much alcohol,” said Director of Medical Services at PMGH, Dr Kone Sobi.

He said the last two years have been especially tough for frontline health workers and the speculated arrival of Omicron in PNG is worrying because this variant spreads much faster even, more than Delta.

Meanwhile, Dr Mangu Kendino, Emergency Physician and St John Ambulance Chief Doctor expressed concern about the demand on frontline health workers to continue exhausting themselves from the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic.

“We hear the community’s sentiment and fatigue of COVID-19 messaging, but let me tell you, though doctors, nurses and ambulance paramedics are exhausted from the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, we will continue having to battle surges of COVID-19 for years to come, especially because our vaccination rates remain low,” Dr Kendino said.

 “We are expecting another wave of COVID-19 as early as January. The virus will transmit quickly around the country as people return to the village for Christmas.

“The third wave of COVID-19 which occurred in October 2021 resulted in four times as many patients needing emergency ambulance care than the previous wave in April. We are fearful this next wave will be even bigger,” Dr Kendino said.

The doctors emphasised adherence to Niupela Pasin as the nation’s best way to win against COVID-19. They urged people to wear a mask when indoors around other people and choose to get vaccinated against COVID-19.

Author: 
Frieda Kana