Health team happy with Aust helpers

AN Australian medical team arrived in Mendi, Southern Highlands, this week to the support of local health response to situations caused by the earthquakes.
The 17-member team include doctors, nurses, paramedics, radiographers, pharmacists and allied health staff such as environmental health staff.
The Australian team will work closely with the Southern Highlands health authority and provincial disaster centre.
Authority chief executive Dr Joseph Birisi said a public health team was set up last week and it was happy that the Australian team had arrived to help them serve the victims.
He said the public health team (surveillance centre) was made up of donors, stakeholders and private organisations.
Birisi said the team would be in the province for the next two weeks but if there were disease outbreaks or a need for the team to stay longer, it would be extended. “First things first, all our health staff will go through counselling as they have gone through trauma,” he said.
Birisi said the team would also deal with public health issues but for now they would basically concentrate on injuries, trauma and disease outbreaks due to the quake.
He said six visiting doctors were registered on a short-term basis by the Papua New Guinea Medical Board.
“On behalf of the people of Southern Highlands, I would like to thank Australian High Commissioner Bruce Davies, the Papua New Guinea Medical Board, the Department of Health and the national and provincial disaster centres that made it possible for the team to come to help the affected people,” Birisi said.
The team has been allocated two houses at the Mendi Provincial Hospital compound.