Basil calls on NEC to put more money into health services

By RIGGO NANGAN
BULOLO MP Sam Basil has called on Prime Minister Sir Michael Somare and the members of the National Executive Council to put more money into improving the standard of hospitals around the country in the 2012 Budget.
Basil said hospitals around the country, starting with Port Moresby General Hospital, had been left to deteriorate.
He said people were dying from curable diseases while leaders travelled overseas for world class treatment at the expense of the paying and dying Papua New Guinean public.
Basil said the NEC members for the past eight years had spent money on the wrong things and did not have a thought for the people dying in local hospitals.
Basil said this in response to a newspaper article yesterday about Papua New Guinean nationals travelling illegally across Torres Strait waters to seek medical help in Australia.
“It is a shame to see our people doing this while nothing is done to fix our hospitals and stocking them with the necessary drugs and equipment,” he said.
Basil said Sir Michael travelled to Singapore to receive world class medical treatment while his people “are dying from diseases that are curable while heart attack and stroke victims can be treated if the right equipment was installed in our hospitals”.
He said for very ill Papua New Guineans to try to seek medical help in Australia illegally and being chased away was a national shame.
He said the country was very rich in natural resources but it seemed leaders did not have the right priorities.
He called on the government to seriously look at improving health facilities in the 2012 budget.
The next parliamentary session next month will debate the 2012 Budget.