More work needed to improve health sector

MORE work needs to be done to improve the country’s health indicators so recommendations from this year’s medical symposium are crucial, a cabinet minister says.
Minister for National Planning and Monitoring Richard Maru said health was a priority of the government and the symposium had the potential to change the future of the medical professional training and services in PNG.
Maru, who is the patron of the 2019 55th medical symposium, said this year’s theme was about quality health education for the health sector at all levels.
“This is a very important area because currently we do not have enough doctors and health workers in the rural areas,” he said.
“There are hundreds of positions in the health sector but we do not have the people.”
Maru said the ageing population of health workers was a concern as well, hence a plan should be made to offer standard specialty trainings with the right ethics.
He told the organising committee that as they were planning for the symposium, the government would like them to look at the current health training regime in PNG and see how it could be improved.
The Department of National Planning and Monitoring presented K300,000 as the government’s contribution towards hosting the symposium in Port Moresby from Sept 1-6. Maru said the Medical Society of PNG and the symposium had the full support of the government.
Medical society president Dr Nakapi Tefurani said there was no manpower for the required health services but the current institutions were not producing enough health workers.
He said solutions and recommendations would be made from the symposium to the national government on how “we can not only increase our health workforce but also produce a health workforce that is accredited to work anywhere in the world”.