Clinic lacks capacity: Doctor

THE eye clinic at the Nonga General Hospital in East New Britain lacks the capacity to treat patients with diabetes, says a specialist.
The lifestyle disease is high in the province and leads to blindness.
Dr Steven Demok, the hospital’s eye specialist, said ENB faced a lot of problems in respect to eye disease.
“Half of it is due to lifestyle diseases that the province has. We have a very high rate of diabetes and hypertension,” Demok said.
“We are not capable of catering for those with diabetes yet because we do have enough trained staff and necessary equipment to treat the people with complications.
“We ask many people to seek treatment elsewhere. But because of the expenses involved, they cannot go out and seek treatment. So a lot of people go blind.
“We cannot do much about that.”
Demok said he hoped the clinic at Nonga could be improved.
“Due to the pressing issues with lifestyle diseases, we have to provide the necessary equipment although expensive to acquire,” he said.
The eye clinic at the hospital is faced with a shortage of staff and needs an urgent renovation.