Sick go hungry
HEALTH Minister Sasa Zibe was forced to visit the Port Moresby General Hospital, PNG’s premier public hospital, after staff there revealed that sick children admitted to the wards have been going without food due to lack of funds.
And Minister Zibe blamed the Port Moresby General Hospital’s management for the ongoing food shortage problems in the children’s ward, particularly pediatric ward 2c and ward 2d where children patients suffering from malnutrition and tuberculosis (TB) live.
He defended the Government, saying the Government ensures the hospital gets enough money every year but these funds are poorly managed.
Minister Zibe visited the hospital with the secretary for Health, Dr Clement Malau, following reports in the Australian press that there was a shortage of food in the children’s malnutrition and TB ward in PMGH.
Mr Zibe asked the PMGH’s chief executive officer (CEO), Dr Alphones Tay, and ward manageress Sister Martha Semin why there was a shortage of milk for malnourished infants and babies and they couldn’t give a direct answer.
Sr Semin, however, said sometimes the orders do not arrive on time so the children’s parents are asked to find their children’s milk and food elsewhere.
“The hospital provides only one meal a day for our patients; they only eat a scoop of rice for dinner but other meals are left to their parents to provide,” she said.
She said sometimes the sisters use their own money to buy nutritious food that is high in protein for the children, cook and serve them for lunch.
Sr Semin said the children’s milk is the main problem because most of their patients are infants and toddlers up to the age of 11 and, with the milk supply that is so irregular, it is hard to hope for the children to get better on hospital supplies.
Mr Zibe was shocked at what he learnt, saying he was going back to decide what to do.
On Monday, when The Age newspaper in Australia published the story, CEO Dr Tay downplayed the situation when approached by The National to comment.
The report said doctors were rationing powdered milk and nutritional supplements for the young because there simply was not enough to meet growing demands.
“The children’s tuberculosis, HIV and malnutrition ward in the hospital in PNG’s capital needs donations of milk powder, UHT milk, canned food and rice,” The Age reported Dr Movumo Kiramat as saying.
Dr Tay said: “To say that our sick children at the hospital were hungry or going days without milk or necessary energy food supplies is not true.
“The hospital provides meals each day for its sick patients including children. They never go hungry.”
But he added: “However, there maybe special cases where we need to provide high calories diet like milk and eggs and this situation is especially true for children at the TB ward. Although we are limited in terms of financial budget to meet operational costs, the hospital manages to pull through by offering on a daily basis high protein food for our children at malnutrition or TB wards who needed nutrition in their body.”
The Age reported Dr Kiramat as saying there were days without milk but this was the reality of most hospitals in PNG because of poor budgets.
“Sometimes, the children’s wards are short for a day, or two or three, and we have to ration supplies.”
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