Madang looks for ways to improve healthcare

SENIOR health department officials in Madang have discussed how the district development authorities can assist in implementing health plans in the next five years.
Acting provincial health director Paul Mabong said the district authorities used to have their own health funding.
“Most of the spending goes to transport, especially ambulances,” Mobong said.
Mabong said they would finalise the five-year health development plan by the end of this week and work out how districts could participate in the development of the five-year plan.
“We will show the DDAs what we can do and understand how we can work together because it is not easy to get funding from MPs,” he said.
Mabong said the plan would not include the establishment of new health facilities but only improvements to existing facilities.
They also discussed how to tackle the increasing number of tuberculosis cases.