Health services out of reach

 WOMEN and children seeking medical attention in Sohe district, Northern province cannot reach health centres because there are no bridges to cross rivers.

Sohe MP Delilah Gore told parliament that women and children could not cross rivers to get medical help. 

She said medical supplies in the remote district were running low with some aid posts and health centres with no stock at all.

“Health centres in the Sohe district are without medicine and the scenario is that somebody very sick or a very sick child cannot reach the nearest health facility in Popondetta because the bridges are washed away,” she said.

“The road network is very bad and the remote people are now without medicine.”

Gore said since the health department gave the supply and distribution of pharmaceutical drugs to private contractors, medicine supply in Sohe has been affected.

“The Health Department does not have records or does not know if medicine was being supplied to the district because this is done by a private contractor.

“I checked with Kokoda health centre as well as other aid posts and health centres in the district and they have told me that they not received medical supplies for almost six months.”

Gore said the Health Department should go back to the old system where medicine was distributed by the area health office to the provincial health office, then distributed to the health centres in the district.