Jiwaka needs hospital: Official

JIWAKA needs a provincial hospital in order to cater for its people, a health official says.
Provincial health authority chief executive officer Dr Thaddeus Turi Kinah said his office was focused on delivering this within the next four years.
Kinah said Kudjip Nazarene Hospital was currently being used as the province’s main hospital under a public-private partnership arrangement while work on the new one starts this year and be completed by 2026 at the latest.
Speaking during the closing of the PHA 2021 operations in December, Kinah announced that preparations were underway to establish a district hospital at Karap in Jimi.
He commended the team which included the board of directors and management for working tirelessly in the last three formative years to establish one of the most hardworking PHAs in the country.
“We have utilised limited resources and worked within our means to achieve greater things for the people of Jiwaka in terms of health service delivery,” he said.
Kinah said despite criticism that the PHA could not bring effective change, the authority had, over a short period of time, established a workable system that was recognised by the central agencies, including the departments of Personnel Management, Finance and Treasury.
“Our core indicators on pillar programmes have picked up and we are going parallel with other established PHAs,” he said.
Among the PHA’s highlights was its management of the Coronavirus response in the province.
In terms of funding allocation for the authority, Kinah said they had started with a seed capital of K9.2 million and as per the budget books for 2022, the funding had increased to K38.11 million of which Kudjip Nazarene Hospital would receive K11.5 million.
He said with such funding boost quality healthcare would be delivered because they had set a system in place for the resources to flow through to improve the health service delivery in the province.
Kinah said last year, 429 health workers were recruited to work within the PHA structure.