PNG medical board swears in 8 new members

The National Main Stories

By OGIA MIAMEL
Eight new members of the PNG Medical Board were sworn in yesterday by Department of Health principal lawyer Margaret Asimabu at the head office in Port Moresby.
The board members representing different disciplines of the medical field are: Health Secretary Pascoe Kase (Health Department), Dr Osborne Liko (Port Moresby General Hospital specialist medical officers), Dr Paul Sali (dental practitioners), Dr Pius Umo (PNG Medical Society), Dr Robin Sios and Prof Nakapi Tefuarani (University of Papua New Guinea School of Medicine and Health Sciences), Ken Wai (health extension officers and allied workers) and Rex Paki (community and social society).
Asimabu said at the swearing in ceremony: “The PNG Medical Board is responsible for all health professionals working in the health system and they are also responsible for the registration and licensing of private health facilities in the country and they are also in collaboration with Health Department responsible for developing standards and upgrading procedures for the health professionals so as the health facilities we have in the country.
“The body has the power to advise anything to do with their core functions.
“We do not have any alternate members because according to the law there is no alternate member. The chairman and deputy chairman will be nominated by the board members.”
The new members replaced former board members whose three-year tenure expired last year.
Kase congratulated the board members and encouraged all to make decisions with intelligence to drive the medical profession forward.
“We’re not only doing registration but discipline and care of our practitioners’ practice in Papua New Guinea,” Kase said.
“The onus is on us to discharge those responsibilities on behalf of our ministers, government and people to ensure that practice of medicine is done according to law and international standards.
“We have a mammoth task on our hand.  When you see the requirements of the new law, it puts in a lot of requirements and that are yet to come.”