Hospital boss calls on police and public to protect doctors

PORT Moresby General Hospital chief executive Dr Umesh Gupta has urged the public and police to help protect healthcare workers.
The call by Gupta follows an attack on Dr Akule Danlop in the early hours of Saturday in Port Moresby.
Danlop was returning home after attending to an emergency surgery at the Port Moresby General Hospital when he was attacked at Boroko between 1am and 2am, leaving him with a broken left arm.
“This is not a first time such wanton acts have occurred,” Gupta said.
“All staff of Port Moresby General Hospital strongly urge the police authorities to take action against the miscreants and initiate appropriate measures to safeguard all healthcare workers, whether it’s PMGH, St John Ambulance or other health facilities,” Gupta said. “We would like to remind these unsocial elements that next time it might be themselves who might require the help of a healthcare worker.
“The healthcare worker may not be so proactive or will forget to give a painkiller or may forget to give anaesthesia when performing surgery on such people, after all, all healthcare workers are also human beings.”
Danlop is the second doctor to be attacked at night in Port Moresby in recent months.
A soldier was dismissed by the PNG Defence Force for assaulting a doctor in May.
The president of the National Doctors’ Association, Dr James Naipao, said Danlop had an emergency surgery on Sunday and plates were inserted into his left arm.