Basic health, HIV/AIDS care vital, says Dion

PRIMARY health care and HIV/AIDS response are two key areas the East New Britain government  will continue to maintain this year, Governor Leo Dion said yesterday.
He said primary health care and HIV/AIDS, governance and management, education, infrastructure, social development, land mobilisation, disaster preparedness and response were among strategic result areas in the province.
Dion said these strategies formed the guiding framework for core programme activities that were linked from the provincial sectors to districts and LLGs for a more coordinated implementation and application of scarce resources.
Major achievements last year under primary health care were the successful conduct of the special immunisation activity, distribution of treated mosquito nets in the four districts and the further scaling down of operations of Nonga Base Hospital because of the continuous ash fall and the redistribution of essential functional services to Kerevat, Butuwin and Vunapope hospitals, Warangoi and Palmalmal health centres, He said.
Dion said that taken on last year was preparatory work on the relocation of Nonga hospital to Putput and the recruitment of medical personnel for the district rural hospitals and strategic centres.
Under the HIV/AIDS response, the province saw the development of the four district strategic plans for HIV/AIDS, which were undergoing approval to enable the drafting of a HIV/AIDS workplace policy.
He said another success story was the engagement of a non-governmental organisation by the Rabaul district to run with the HIV/AIDS programme through established district AIDS committees.
Dion said the establishment of 14 voluntary counselling and testing sites in strategic locations and the signing of an MoA with the National AIDS Council, provincial administration and provincial AIDS committee to address the epidemic at the provincial level had added impetus to the fight.