K60,000 untrasound machine timely help for mums

By Martha Deruage
THE Gerehu General Hospital in Port Moresby now has a portable ultrasound scanning machine to assist in diagnosing pregnant women.
It was donated by Medical Repurposing Network Sydney Cove Rotary Club.
Hospital chief executive Dr Steven Yennie said it was a handy machine that would be used by their gynaecologist and obstetrician to scan women and pregnant women.
“This portable ultrasound scan machine is very handy because it would be easy to move around and it has multiple probes which can be used for different scanning methods,” he said.
Yennie said the machine was worth K60,000, bought in China by their partner Medical Repurposing Network Sydney Cove Rotary Club, in Australia, and sent to Port Moresby.
He said it would help make quicker diagnosis.
Yennie said the hospital had four big ultrasound scanning machines with wheels but it was too big to take in and out of outpatient wards.
He said the new machine went well with the hospital’s plan to establish a labour ward as part of this year project.
“We do not have a labour ward here, we only have a maternity clinic and a gynaecologist clinic where pregnant women come for checkup but to deliver babies they go to the Port Moresby General Hospital,” he said. “For the past three years we have seen about 2000 who came for maternity checkups then go deliver in PMGH and private hospitals.
He said the hospital board agreed to establish a labour ward this year.