Nonga short on supplies

A SHORTAGE of oxygen and blood supplies at the Nonga Base Gene­ral Hospital is affecting scheduled operations.
Two of the three ope­rating rooms have inadequate lighting and malfunctioning air-condition units.
Anesthetic scientific officer Herman Sletor said without the oxygen supply, it was difficult to perform operations on patients.
Sletor said many of the operating instruments and adjustable beds had rusted because of  the volcanic ash.
A notice put out by the hospital administration stated that the shortage of oxygen supply was being felt in the region.
Nonga hospital unsuccessfully tried to purchase oxygen from business houses which had run of supply themselves. The hospital said it could have been the result of the recent fire which destroyed the BOC compound in Lae. It was the hospital’s sole supplier of oxygen.
The hospital administration has directed that until the situation improves, oxygen supply at the dispensary is to be reserved for emergency cases only. All surgeons are to put on hold non-emergency cases.
Yesterday, two amputations – on a cancer patient and a diabetic patient – had to be cancelled because of a shortage of blood.
Consultant surgeon Dr Kevin Lapu said once blood was available, they would perform operations on the patients.
The medical ward is also facing a shortage of beds.
It currently has six beds and with so many patients, there was a backlog at the outpatient section.
Some patients were forced to be discharged early to make beds available for other cases.
Nurses said the ward was also used as the intensive care unit.
Nurses said mothers from the gynecology ward who are supposed to have their own ablution blocks are forced to share with other patients. The ward has 25 beds.
The morgue is a solitary deep-chest refrige­rator. Sources said usually bodies were just dumped on each other because the freezer could only cater for four bodies at a time. 
The government had allocated the hospital K9 million in 2010, K11 million in 2011. It is expecting to get K12 million this year to maintain buildings and infrastructure.