Hospital to scale down services

THE Mt Hagen Hospital will scale down its services if no money is released today by the Finance Department.
Western Highlands health authority (PHA) chairman David Guinn said the hospital would also stop taking referrals from other Highlands provinces.
Guinn said referrals from Jiwaka, Hela, Southern Highlands and Enga would be asked to access medical services at Kudjip, Tari, Mendi and Wabag provincial hospitals.
He said other services at Mt Hagen to be affected would be elective surgery which will be deferred but not cancelled.
“The people coming from outside the province will be sent back to their own provincial hospitals to seek medication,” he said.
Guinn said the emergency surgery would not be affected at this stage.
He said all other services would be maintained at the hospital.
Guinn said funds for the PHA were not received since last year.
“Western Highlands health authority did not receive any funds for January and this month, and the funding situation has become critical,” he said.
Guinn said that he had been in contact with Health Minister Jelta Wong and the minister was aware of the issue the hospital was facing.
He said his office had also informed acting Health secretary Dr Paison Dakulala as well as deputy secretary for the Treasury Department about their situation.
“We are all working together to resolve the current crisis.”
Guinn said he expected to receive funds today but if nothing was forthcoming they would immediately scale down operations.
Guinn said the measures were necessary to ensure the safety of patients, visitors and staff.
He said services would return to normal as soon as funds became available.
“I am hopeful that this service reduction will only be for a few days until funds are released by the Department of Finance.”