China helps with equipment

 CHINA has donated equipment to the Eye Department of the Port Moresby General Hospital to help cataract surgeries.

It was part of the donation of medical equipment made by the Chinese embassy in Port Moresby.

Deputy chief of mission Fan Kun handed over the equipment to hospital CEO Grant Muddle.

 “We are happy to donate this medical equipment and to strengthen the bilateral relationship that this country has with the People’s Republic of China,” he said.

The medical package includes intraocular lens, eye drops and ophthalmic viscosurgical device. 

He gave medicine which the hospital had run out of.

Chief ophthalmologist, Dr Jambi Garap said the equipment would boost services at the department.

“The warehouse is out of stock of most of these medications thus making it difficult for us to perform surgery,” she said.

She said patients were often told to buy intraocular lens themselves which caused delay in surgery because they were quite expensive.

Muddle thanked China for its ongoing support for the hospital.

In December, the Chinese embassy sent a team of specialists to conduct eye surgeries at the hospital.