Nonga hospital will stick to user-pay policy, says CEO

National, Normal
Source:

The National Thursday, 26th January 2012

THE Nonga Base General Hospital, in East New Britain, has welcomed the K350 million allocated by the national government for free medical services.
But it will continue to charge patients fees for medical care, chief executive officer Dr John Maku says.
He said because this was a one-off payment, it was appropriate to stick to the normal user pay fees in order to effectively run
the hospital.
“While we are excited about the K350 million allocation for free medical care, we still have reservations about providing free service to the people,” he said.
Maku said the money could be used to buy new equipment, rehabilitate ailing infrastructure and maintain staff houses.
He said the hospital faced a shortage of manpower because of the retirement of nurses although community health workers were on hand to help out.
He said health workers tended to be overworked and there was a need to recruit more nurses.
In its annual budget allocations from the government, the hospital received K9 million in 2010, K11 million last year and expected to get K12 million this year in order to maintain infrastructure.
It is understood that the provincial executive council has not decided whether the province would have a provincial health authority to look into issues faced by health institutions within the province.