Hospital faces staff shortage

By LULU MARK
WITH three Coronavirus (Covid-19) deaths in 24 hours, and more than 90 patients admitted, the country’s biggest hospital is facing a manpower shortage to handle the third surge, an official says.
Port Moresby General Hospital (PMGH) chief executive officer Dr Paki Molumi said seven people had died in the hospital since Monday.
He said the Covid-19 positivity rate at the hospital had increased from 33 per cent on Monday, Oct 27 to 70 per cent yesterday.
It means that for every 10 patients with cough, flu, running nose or fever who were tested for the Covid-19, seven tested positive.
“We have 92 Covid-19 patients admitted,” he said.
“Our 19 bed isolation ward is full.
“A medical ward was opened up to accommodate the numbers.
“In the coming days, we will improve the capacity at TAC (Taurama Aquatic Centre –Nightingale Covid-19 care centre) to take on moderate cases, so PMGH can be freed up to return to providing other service after the two-week scale-down.”
He said since the hospital was experiencing a shortage in manpower, the two-week scale-down was to mobilise manpower to support the Covid-19 activities.
“More short-term contract staff have been recruited.”