City’s general hospital in shocking state, says PM

PRIME Minister Peter O’Neill has described as appalling the condition of the Port Moresby General Hospital.
Accompanied by members of his cabinet during a visit there yesterday, he said the hospital was in a “shocking” state.
“Our government is absolutely concerned about the shocking decay of health facilities and inefficient delivery of health services to all our citizens.
“It is an absolute shock and a concern. What the hospital is providing, the people do not deserve and the government cannot sit back and allow the collapse in health service delivery,” O’Neill said.
Although the hospital is the premier facility in the country, it confirmed that with its 900 beds, it remained short-staffed and was running low on medical drugs and equipment.
Board chairman Dadi Toka Jr told the prime minister that the hospital was in dire need of assistance to lift it to the required health standard to provide the people with what they deserved.
“The people deserve better than what is here,” Toka Jr said.
He said in his three-year term, he planned to make the hospital a proper facility for medical treatment.
O’Neill and his ministers made the official visit without Health and HIV/AIDS Minister Jamie Maxtone-Graham who was out of the country.
They delivered funding to upgrade the health facilities and introduced free medical and health service effective as of yesterday.