Hospital turns away patients

PATIENTS from Yangoru in East Sepik seeking medical attention at Maprik Hospital are often turned away following the closure of their rural hospital nine months ago.
A community leader from Yangoru Joe Aregin said sick patients from Yangoru were often told to go back home or seek medical treatment elsewhere as the Maprik Hospital had its own patients to attend to.
The Yangoru Rural Hospital was closed as a result of the hospital’s inability to access water from the main water supply.
Senior provincial health adviser Albert Bunat said last week that the tragedy for the people of Yangoru had been blamed on the work of hooligans who destroyed pipes that carried water from the storage tank to the hospital late last year.
Mr Bunat said staff from outside of Yangoru area were being sent away while a lone nursing officer with two community health workers from the area were left to take care of the facility.
The prolonged water problem coupled with the recent sewerage problem has also affected other operations in Yangoru.
Two primary schools were forced to close while the Yangoru Secondary School transferred all its pioneer Grade 11 students to other secondary schools including the Passam National High School.
The entire station was ordered to shut down by health authorities after they condemned the sanitation dump site three weeks ago.
Deputy provincial administrator Otto Ganai, who visited the site last week following The National’s report on the station’s closure, was in Port Moresby later to seek assistance in replacing the existing buckets with septic toilets and maintain
other necessities in a bid to reopen the station.
Mr Aregin said Mr Ganai, who is also the acting district administrator, had given them until this week to at least come up with temporary measures to help both the sick people and students.

Type In Your Name:

Type In Your E-mail:

Your Friend's E-mail:

Your Comments:

Receive copy: