Medical field needs intakes

THE University of PNG’s (UPNG) school of medicine and health sciences at the Taurama campus offers quality medical programmes but is faced with many challenges.
The discrepancies or problems of the medical school was revealed to the UPNG Chancellor Robert Igara and the Vice-Chancellor Frank Griffin during a visit to the medical school last Thursday.
Prof Sir Isi Kevau said while the UPNG medical school continued to provide quality medical training that was compatible to international standards, the infrastructure that were first built in 1963 was in a sad state and were starting to deteriorate.
Sir Isi said the number of graduates the school produced each year could not cater for the increasing demand for medical doctors and other technical staff at hospitals throughout the country, with just 40 graduates each year to serve the 8 million people.
He said in comparison, the three universities in New South Wales produces about 200 doctors annually, all three put together produces about 600 doctors compared to PNG. Sir Isi said there was a need to increase the number of student intake.
He said although Divine Word University offered the same training, it was a private institution but UPNG medical school, as a State university, needs the support of the Government.
He added that other challenges the medical school faced was the staff accommodation which needed urgent attention if the school intended to recruit young lecturers.
Sir Isi said pay issues also needed to be looked at so it attracted more specialists and super specialist post graduates to teach at the school.
He said the human resource department need to process salaries and contracts of employment quickly as the school had lost 13 high potential staff due to the slow processing of their salaries and improved accommodation.
Sir Isi said another problem was the GPA of students that need a holistic approach of addressing maths and science trends in the education system.