Morobe gets health authority status

MOROBE, the second biggest province in the country with a population of more than 800,000 people, has been given its provincial health authority status.
Health and HIV/AIDS Minister Elias Kapavore announced the status on Thursday.
The ministerial order establishing the Morobe Health Authority (MPHA) was signed; the Angau Memorial General Hospital (AMGH) in Lae is now under the Morobe health authority.
“I am very confident and very positive that PHA is the way to deliver health services right across the entire health system in our country,” Kapavore, who is only two weeks into his role as Minister for Health and HIV/AIDS, said.
“Because it could coordinate and direct all the resources, the limited resources are put into one place which everyone is accountable for, at the moment, hospitals are doing their own things.”
Kapavore said the two important Acts of Parliament that ceased to exist in Morobe were the Public Hospital Act 1994 and National Health Administration Act 1997.
“What replaces the two Acts (as of Thursday) is the Provincial Health Authority Act 2007,” he said.
“The MPHA covers health facilities from level one (aid posts) to level six hospitals, and it is a huge task for the authority and board members.”
Morobe has 28 health centres, 22 sub-health centres, two district Hospitals – Braun Rural Hospital in Finschhafen and Etep Rural Hospital in Tewai-Siassi – 352 aidposts and one regional hospital in Angau.
Of the aid posts, 194 are operating while 158 had closed.
Of the closed aidposts, Bulolo had the highest number with 37, Huon Gulf 24, Menyamya 22, Nawaeb 18, Kabwum 17, Tewai-Siassi 16, Finschhafen 13 and Markham 11.