Lack of funds affect St John Ambulance’s operations

 By SHARLYNE ERI 
Some branches and divisions of St John Ambulance are now under different managements because of insufficient funds to manage all of them, acting CEO Mollen Molki says.
Molki said due to financial problems, the branch in Wewak and some other centres had been handed over to the provincial governments.
He said the St John Ambulance branch in Port Moresby looks after some parts of Gulf and Central.
“We have a unit in Kupiano and Hula in the Central province.
“For Kupiano, there was no financial support from the local authorities to support its operation so we had to suspend the unit located there.”
Molki said St John Ambulance was also located in Bougainville but was forced to shut down during the Bougainville crisis.
He said negotiations with the Bougainville government were underway to have the branch there re-opened.
“We also had other services such as caring of the blind and the blood bank which were taken under the care of the Government because there were no funds available to keep them in operation.”

Molki says that institutions such as the Gordon and Gerehu clinics used to be under St John Ambulance but were recently handed over to the Government due to the same reason.