Health centres running on empty

By PETER ESILA and JACKLYN SIRIAS
THE 12 government rural health facilities in Northern do not have any more funds to operate, says a health officer.
Provincial health adviser Copeland Ihove said they had been operating since February with no funding from the national Government.
“How can we operate when there are no money in the account?” he said.
Ihove said K4 million was deposited into a provincial health authority account in June by the Finance Department but Northern did not have an established provincial health authority yet.
He said Northern was sharing borders with Morobe, which was currently doing a polio vaccination programme, and if the disease spread to Oro, there would be no capacity to deal with it.
“People from Lae come to buy betel nut here and if polio is detected, we cannot deal with it,” Ihove said.
He said that yesterday morning, a pregnant mother who was having complication with delivery had to be carried for hours by villagers from Asafa in the Kokoda sub-station to Sairope.
“Sairope is where the road starts, so I had to send a vehicle from Popondetta to Sairope,” Ihove said.
“This is about two to three hours’ drive.
“We did not have any fuel to run this ambulance service.
“The driver was advised to go and ask the families and relatives to pay for the fuel so that he can bring the patient down to the hospital.”
Meanwhile, Northern health authorities have threatened to close all facilities in the province today because grants from the national government have not been received.
Senior health practitioner Champion Sagiribo said the provincial health grant of K4.7 million for this year had never been released.
“The non-release of this grant has affected our operations in the province, resulting in us not carrying out our operational plans to reach out to our people with much-needed health services,” he said.
Sagiribo said they have not been able to do health patrols to communities because there is no money for fuel. “We have 19 health facilities in the province all of which are currently facing financial issues because of this non release of fund,” he said.