Doctor to conduct autopsy

By HELEN TARAWA
THE Popondetta General Hospital is awaiting the arrival of a doctor from Port Moresby to carry out the post-mortem on a teenaged girl allegedly killed at an oil palm block.
Northern police commander Lincoln Gerari told The National that the body of the 18-year old girl was found at the Sangara Oil Palm block.  Gerari said the doctor would also carry out post mortem on others at the mortuary.
Hospital chief executive officer Dr Gunzee Garwin said post mortems were performed by specialist doctors known as pathologists.
“We don’t have many.  The few pathologists we have are based at the Port Moresby General Hospital and in Angau.
Their availability is always a challenge,” Garwin said.
“We conduct post mortems but at nominated days only depending on the availability of a doctor.
“We have busy schedules managing our wards and clinics as well as operating. Doing one post mortem at a time will be clashing with the doctors’ schedule and therefore affect patient care.”
Gawin said the four post mortems scheduled for today included the teenaged girl.
“We ask the public and the police criminal investigation division in particular to be patient and check with the Director Medical Services, Dr Touai Giara for schedules.”