By ELIZABETH VUVU
THE East New Britain provincial government has been urged not to down play the importance of relocating the Nonga Base Hospital.
This was raised by Jethro Meme, a concerned guardian at the hospital amidst the recent scaling down of services at the hospital due to the heavy volcanic ash fall from the nearby Mt Tavurvur.
He said provincial leaders were not taking the issue seriously to relocate the hospital as it has frequently been prone to suffer from heavy ash fall.
Mr Meme said since the hospital was reconstructed after the 1994 eruption, the practice of having to scale down services due to the ash falls resulting in the contamination of the environment was now becoming a “normal practice”.
He said although it had become an expensive exercise and one which had caused a lot of inconvenience for patients, hospital workers and their families, the provincial government still did not make any attempts to consider relocating the hospital.
Mr Meme said that health workers at Nonga had displayed a lot of patience having to put up with unhealthy working conditions for over 10 years.
Added to that, he said requests for risk allowances had also fallen on deaf ears.
Nonga hospital chief executive officer Cornelius Kalimet said this was the fourth time since 1994 for the hospital to scale down operations and move to the Vunapope Hospital where full specialist services were currently taking place.
Mr Kalimet said they had been forced to close down the children’s and adult outpatient departments, consultation clinics, the operating theatre and the labour ward.
“The move is in the best interest of our patients and the people as doctors and the hospital management were worried about the effect of the dust,” he said.
“The operating theatre cannot operate in a dusty environment where patients can easily be subjected to post operative wounds.”
He added that although he was not in a position to make comments on the relocation issue, he called on the concerned authorities to treat the issue seriously.
Meanwhile, the provincial health division under the ENB provincial administration could not comment on the matter saying it came under the National Health Department’s umbrella.