Doc: PNG needs more doctors

PAPUA New Guinea (PNG) needs to produce more doctors and health workers to cater for the needs of a growing population and rise in medical problems, cardiologist Prof Sir Isi Kevau says.
“We have been producing fewer than 50 medical doctors with a population of about 10 million and that is a real challenge,” he said.
“The ratio is bad.
“I have been teaching since the 1980s and these are all the men that I trained who are so busy and the stressed.
“Initially, it was the Papuan Medical College (now the University of PNG) that was producing doctors but never more than 60 a year.”
Sir Isi, who is also Sir Buri Kidu Heart Foundation director, said the University of PNG had been producing doctors for many years, but the number of graduates had not increased.
“The challenge for the prime minister, the Education Department and everyone is why are we unable to improve our science and mathematics so that more doctors are produced? I am only speaking on behalf of doctors, but all the other cadres of health workers are in the same situation,” he said.
Sir Isi urged corporations such as Kumul Petroleum Holdings Ltd (KPHL) to sponsor students who struggled to complete studies.
“I feel sorry for some of the day students who come from outside such as those in 9-Mile; they arrive late in the morning session,” he said.
He was speaking at the Port Moresby General Hospital where Prime Minister James Marape witnessed the first stenting procedure at the heart centre and the presentation of a K10 million funding from KPHL to the hospital’s cancer centre project on Thursday.