Clinics to cater for children

AUSTRALIAN High Commissioner Jon Philp handed over three portable container clinics to the Buin health centre, in South Bougainville, on Wednesday.
The containers, which were initially intended for use as triage centres for the Covid-19, will be used as children’s clinics.
The improvised container clinic is the first of three for Bougainville, with seven others to be distributed to other parts of Papua New Guinea.
Philp said the portable clinics would help provide additional spaces for health service providers.
He said the facility was a level one clinic and not a solution to Buin’s health infrastructure problems and more needed to be done collectively to help.
Philp said the Covid-19 could enter Buin after the detection of a positive case in Honiara, Solomon Islands, and the mobile clinic would also provide a clinical facility to deal with positive cases.
He said Buin was prioritised because it was close to the border with the Solomon Islands, but Central Bougainville and North Bougainville would each receive a portable clinic as well.
Philp said other areas of support to the Covid-19 response on Bougainville included K950,000 given to the Bougainville Health Department.
There was funding assistance also for procurement of medicines and equipment as well as training of health personnel to deal with the Covid-19, plus the donation of four vehicles to the Bougainville Health Department.
Australia provided assistance for the establishment of the Suhin isolation centre.
Philp said Australia had invested K20 million this year.