Hospital announces boss’ death

By LULU MARK
THE Pacific International Hospital (PIH) has announced the death of its founder Mohammad Sultan this week after battling an illness.
PIH chief executive officer Sandeep Shaligram confirmed with The National yesterday that Sultan died in Bangalore, India, on Monday.
He said Sultan had been flown from Port Moresby on Jan 7 after falling ill.
“Sultan is the founder of Pacific International Hospital and is accredited with bringing tertiary healthcare to the people of Papua New Guinea,” Shaligram said.
“His charitable work includes thousands of pro-bono surgeries done in remote parts of the country and donations to public institutions.”
Shaligram said Sultan was 63-years-old at the time of his passing and had been in PNG for 28 years.
The late Sultan leaves behind his wife and co-founder of PIH Dr Amyna Sultan, who is an ophthalmologist at the hospital and two children.
According to the PIH website, the hospital was established in Papua New Guinea as PNG Diagnostic Centre in 1997.
The hospital performed the first computerised tomography (CT) scan in the country.
In 2001 PIH became the first fully licensed private hospital operating in the country.
PIH opened a secondary level private hospital in Boroko, Port Moresby, and became the first 24-hour private emergency hospital.
In 2015 PIH opened a tertiary care multi-speciality hospital at 3-Mile, Port Moresby.
It was the first private hospital in the country to provide a cardiac catheterisation lab and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) services.
It is the largest private hospital in PNG offering expertise in more than 20 clinical specialities.