Extra funding allows work on ward 9 to start

 By ALISON ANIS

PORT Moresby General Hospital chief executive officer Sam Vegogo said the renovation on ward 9 of the maternity wing may resume sometime next month with extra funding provided.

The renovation was halted by contractor early last year due to lack of funds and was shut down since then, forcing mothers to sleep on bare floors with their newborns.

“We have asked for additional funding from Treasury for renovations but did not secure the required funds. With the increase in budget, we are hoping that within this month or next month we should be able to get the contractors working to complete the renovations,” Vegogo said.

He said the hospital received K46 million in its 2011 budget, an increase of K7 million from last year’s K39 million.

He added that K25 million would go toward staff salaries and other emoluments while the rest would go to the administration of the hospital.

“We have carried out renovations to the labour ward, ward 11 and ward 10 to make it conducive to mothers.  It was quite unfortunate that work on ward 9 was stopped halfway, but now we have a chance to fix that problem.

“What everyone must understand is that we cannot fix everything overnight because of funding constrains. Improvement to infrastructure could be utilised only when funding becomes available,” Vegogo said.

“What we are doing now is laying out the foundation, getting the basic rights before we can consider any major infrastructure.”