Bogia centre faces drugs shortage

By DOROTHY MARK
THERE is still a shortage of drugs at the Bogia Health Centre in Madang for more than 20,000 people the centre caters for.
Acting district administrator Ruth Wazamie said the centre was still short on basic medicines such as painkillers, panadol and amoxicillin.
Wazamie said Bogia MP Robert Naguri wanted to assist with the drugs but funding was a problem.
“We are sending away patients because there are no medicines in our health centre,” she said.
According to Wazamie, community health workers, including new graduates from Gaubin Health Workers School on Karkar Island, were recruited to serve in rural aid posts in the district but there was no money to pay for their salaries.
As a result, they were all kept at the health centre in Bogia to attend to patients while they waited for funds.
Wazamie said 75 per cent of the total aid posts in the district were closed for a number of years and with the recruitment of new health workers, the aid posts would reopen but funds to cater for the workers’ salaries and medical supplies would be a major problem.
She said power supply for the  health centre was still an outstanding issue that needed fixing.
It is understood that two standby generators, one each for the Daigul Health Centre and Bogia Health Centre, were purchased by the provincial government in 2015 but those machines were yet to be installed.
Wazamie said she was assured that the generators would be installed soon.
“We bought some solar lights and we are still using them in the health centre during the night,” she said.