‘Give PMC green light’

CHAIRMAN of the PNG technical advisory committee on the Pacific Medical Centre (PMC) and four regional hospitals development Dr Mathias Sapuri is calling on the government to invest in the medical facility.
He said the PMC was very much part of the National Health Plan 2011-20 (NHP) and that action needed to be taken now to deliver all the basic health services.
Sapuri said funding (K14.17 billion) for the NHP was already in place to develop the entire health system starting from the rural health facilities. right up to the major hospitals and that the government needed to fund the PMC (K500 million) from the income generated from the resources.
Sapuri said the PMC had a development plan of its own and that funding to build it would have to come from the government. 
He said this on FM100 Talkback show yesterday, adding that the PMC project was not shelved and  it was going ahead and needed  government support.
Last Tuesday, it was reported in the media that the Prime Minister Sir Michael Somare had directed Health and HIV/AIDS Minister Sasa Zibe to stop funding for the PMC.
Sapuri said Sir Michael did not scraped the PMC off the NHP but he (Sir Michael) questioned whether taxpayers’ money should be spent on that project.
“As a senior doctor in the country, I challenge myself to do more for PNG and I’m calling on the prime minister and the government to put money into PMC.
“I want to see something good for the country,” he said.
Sapuri said the whole idea of the concept was to develop Angau, Port Moresby, Nonga and Mt Hagen general hospitals to be the regional hospitals with trained specialists available – the PMC would be the national referral hospital.
He said primary health care would be provided at the community health post, rural and provincial hospitals.
Listeners around the country, who called in, generally supported the idea of having the PMC.