Gerehu Hospital to be upgraded

National, Normal
Source:

The National, Thursday 25th April 2013

 By ELIZABETH MIAE

THE St John Hospital at Gerehu in the National Capital District will be upgraded to a level four health facility (provincial hospital), says Health and HIV/AIDS Minister Michael Malabag.

He revealed this while addressing Australian Governor-General Quentin Bryce during her visit to the hospital yesterday.

Malabag acknowledged the support of AusAID for the technical assessment carried out at the hospital last year.

“During the next 12 months, I want the Health Department and NCD health services to prepare the facility to meet the required standards for a hospital including establishing a first-class TB unit in light of the prevailing TB burden in Gerehu,” he said.

He said the health sector had benefited a lot from AusAID through various technical and financial support.

He also highlighted the seriousness of the disease at the regional level. 

“In 2012 PNG reported 22,488 cases with a case notification of 206/100,000 population. This far outstrips the TB burden of other countries in the Pacific.

“According to the 2012 surveillance report, NCD has one third of all TB reported in PNG. Gerehu is among the top 25 facilities with highest cases reported.”

He plans to make curative (hospital) health services accessible to rural and urban disadvantaged people.

World Vision country director Dr Curt von Boguslawski said partnership was the key to addressing TB.