Doctor calls to address issues at Angau

THE national doctors association Morobe branch president Dr Barry Mutan has called on the Morobe Provincial Health Authority (PHA) to address concerns raised by doctors at Angau Memorial Hospital.
Dr Mutan said the concerns included the shortage of medical and specialist officers, entitlements, and the poor adherence and enforcement of the niupela pasin protocols in communities.
He said they wanted to hear from authorities by tomorrow on the issues they raised.
Morobe PHA chief officer Dr Kipas Binga in a recent meeting said they were planning to recruit more staff for Angau.
“We should have started recruiting new staff but the only hiccup was that the merger between Angau Hospital and the PHA was not formally done yet, therefore, the Department of Personnel Management (DPM) did not allow it,” Binga said.
He said this was because PHA’s power to hire people for the positions at Angau had been taken away from them by DPM in 2018.
Dr Mutan said the Covid-19 would impact Angau’s health workers and they need more staff.
“We should have 80 medical staff to cater for the one million plus population of Morobe,” Mutan said.
He said there were only 40 staff which equated to one health worker for 21,000 people which was well above the national average of one staff to 15,000.