Hospital spends K70,000 to buy drugs

WEST New Britain’s Kimbe Hospital has spent K70,000 to buy drugs for the past three months after it ran out of supplies, chief executive officer Dr Victor Golpak says.
Golpak said they bought the drugs from Port Moresby using money from their recurrent budget.
“We should use the funds to buy drugs needed by specialists not catalogue items,” he said.
He said the buying of basic drugs for malaria and other common sicknesses was the Health Department’s responsibility.
“As per the Medical Supplies Act, it is the Health Department’s responsibility to purchase them,” he said.
He questioned how the Health Department was using the K400 million allocated for health services for this year.
“I have requested for the health department to reimburse the funds used but I’m still awaiting their response,” Golpak said.
Attempts to get comments from Health secretary Pascoe Kase on the reimbursement of funds were unsuccessful as he was in a meeting.