Health ship on a mission

National

Voluntary health services provided by Youth with a Mission (YWAM) medical ships in Papua New Guinea over the last eight years have been valued at many millions of kina, according to Australian patron Mike Reynolds.
He said this yesterday on board mv YWAM PNG, which has returned to Port Moresby from Australia  in preparation for deployment to Northern at the weekend.
The ship has just completed a three-month maintenance and refit in Townsville and Cairns.
The work done included construction of a multi-purpose lounge-training room, and increased accommodation capacity from 116 berths to 132.
The ship has been operating in PNG for eight years.
“Over this period, our YWAM medical ships have delivered over 911,000 healthcare and training services,” Reynolds said.
“That’s including direct care to over 176, 000 patients.”
He said mv YWAM PNG would be delivering services to Northern and Morobe over the next seven months.
“We will not only be seeing new patients during that time, but also having follow-ups with existing patients that we have seen over a period of time,” Reynolds said.
“We also do referral to other doctors or hospitals, or medical services in PNG.”
Reynolds said services to be delivered included immunisation, maternal health services for mothers and children, dentistry, tuberculosis screening and various others.
He said health promotion at village, district and personal level was another service carried out by mv YWAM PNG.