Medicos shine through calamity

By PETER WARI

THE health sector in Southern Highlands was able to weather some huge challenges brought on by the February earthquake and political mayhem quite unlike other government institutions or services.
But with one mind, one aim and one goal, health workers in the province stood united to serve despite the challenges. They have been acknowledged for their heroism and the continuity of services to communities, despite being affected by the disaster themselves.
Southern Highlands has five districts with 22 LLGs and 502 wards (after Hela officially was declared a province in May 2012). The 2010 national census says the province’s population was 515,511, and was project to rise to 647,482 in 2018 basing on the growth rate of 3.2 per cent. This populations is spread across 15,089 square kilometers of landmass.
SHP shares common administrative boundaries with Western Highlands, Enga, Gulf and Hela. It is geographically mountainous with rugged terrain and some places are not accessible by road (eg, Mt Bosave, Wapusale). Most of its people live in the remotest areas. It has a multi-lingual tribal group with a low literacy rate of 40.6 per cent for males and 32.2 per cent for females.
There are a total of 173 health facilities under the PHA; one provincial hospital, three district hospitals, eight health centers, 31 health sub centers, four community health posts and 128 aid posts. Of the 173, facilities 44 are church-run.
Generally, all health facilities are run down and have deteriorated over the years. There was no maintenance done by the elected MPs and LLGs even though these services are serving the very members of their communities. The current functioning health facilities do not meet the National Health Service (NHSS) 2011 standards of each level of health facility.
The district hospitals are Level 4 health facilities however, in the province, they operate as Level 3 and 2 health facilities and do not even meet their required standards in terms of infrastructure, medical equipment and staffing requirements. There is a greater need for immediate rehabilitation and redevelopment. This is for the safety of the health workers and the disadvantaged communities accessing the health facilities.
Provincial health authority chief executive Dr Joseph Birisi said the year 2017-2018 was a challenging period for the province.
“We were baptised with crisis after crisis (both natural and man-made disasters) so basically, we were doing “crisis management” all this time. To manage these things, it came with costs that were not budgeted and the negative perception to the province has also made it difficult for us to attract or retain a skilled workforce like doctors,” he said.
He said another challenge was the ongoing court battle between the previous hospital board and PHA board. But despite these trying moments the PHA was able to make some progress and achieved plenty of things for which Birisi commend the previous board under the leadership of Peter Nupiri.
“I also want to take this time to commend all our partners such as Oil Search Foundation, World Health Organisation, United Nations Children Fund, International Committee of Red Cross, National Department of Health, churches, district development authorities, the provincial government and others who stood with us in these trying moments.
“In fact, the earthquake was a blessing in disguise where we got a lot of support from partners like solar vaccine fridges (fully covered now), vaccination coverage programmes, medical equipment, logistics like air support to transport 100 per cent kits to the health facilities, building capacity like training of our staff at no cost and many more,” he said.
“Also, I want to commend my management team and staff that at no one time we closed the health services during the crisis. In fact, this prompted us to work harder and at times I had to send officers to the disaster-stricken areas without food and allowances to save lives.
“My officers at the hospital had to withstand threats from criminals and continue to provide the service. I also commend the surrounding communities of our health facilities for providing support and security so that provision of health services were not disrupted during these tough times,” he said.
Birisi said some of the things achieved since PHA was declared in the province for the past two and half years were the swearing in and induction of the PHA board, merging of both hospital and rural staff to the new PHA structure and Alesco payroll, more than 80 casuals taken on board as public servants, a corporate plan, a proper human resource management framework and instilling of discipline. Staff, especially rural health workers are disciplined unlike in the past.
He said other achievements were the opening of the new nursing and staff accommodations for Mendi Hospital (Sr Wesi Kerak residence). Some hospital projects like the establishment of water supply, new medical equipment and installation of the new laundry for Mendi Provincial Hospital, ICT projects like the PGAS accounting system, HMIS and fixed asset management registry were installed this year. All assets were valued by a valuation team. These projects were delivered in collaboration with the ICT department of the Department of Finance and the Department of Health.
“We also have a new fuel depot installed this year and many other vital developments have taken place.
“So all my health staff are real champions and together we will work to address many of the problems in the 173 health facilities,” he said.
On many occasions Birisi has encouraged health workers not to give up aand work with their heart as it is a call from God to serve the people.