No money, hospital closed

LUTHERAN-run Etep Rural Hospital in Tewae-Siassi has been closed for almost a month due to funding issues, says its health manager John Demok.
He said since scaling down operations to emergency services, the district development authority (DDA) had intervened with K70,000 for hospital operations.
However, a document called form 11 which was supposed to be attached to the cheque for clearance by the bank was not issued by the district treasury, Demok said.
“Form 11 is a requirement to declare who gave the money and for what purpose, so currently we have the cheque from the DDA and are awaiting form 11 in order to access these funds,” he said.
Tewae-Siassi MP Dr Kobby Bomareo said he gave K110,000 to the Lutheran Health Services for Etep Hospital – K70,000 for hospital operations, K30,000 for the Coronavirus operation and K10,000 for women’s health services.
Morobe health authority also committed K25,000 to Etep and K50,000 to the Braun Rural Hospital in Finschhafen but chief executive officer Dr Kipas Binga said issues with the Integrated Financial Management System (IFMS) had slowed down the transfer of funds.
Demok said: “In the meantime, we don’t have money on hand to operate so Etep remains closed.”
“For Braun on the other hand, Finschhafen DDA gave a cheque for K132,000 along with form 11 so we were able to access these funds within two days and the hospital has reopened to the public.
“We hope Etep’s situation will not continue for more than three months because the people are missing out on basic health care.”
Demok said the Evangelical Lutheran Church (ELC) helped with K3,000 towards Etep’s VSAT bills and restored communication to the facility after more than month offline.
Demok also said he was aware of at least two fundraising drives by individuals to raise money to help Etep hospital’s day-to-day operations.