PM reveals big plans for city hospital

Main Stories, National
Source:

The National, Monday October 28th, 2013

 By JEFFREY ELAPA

PRIME Minister Peter O’Neill says  the Port Moresby General Hospital  will be established under a statutory authority next year.

This  means that all human resource management issues such as  the recruitment of staff and budget allocations will be separate from the public service structure. 

These are dealt with  by the departments of personnel management and health  now. 

O’Neill  visited the hospital with  Health Minister Michael Malabag yesterday.

He   was shown the developments and renovations at the hospital that would cost the hospital K12 million – a million kina each for the 12 hospital wards to undergo  renovation and maintenance work.

O’Neill  said  the Government  had allocated the hospital  K50 million of funding for hospitals while the others received  only K10 million each.

He said from next year, the hospital  would be managed under a hospital authority that would manage its own budget and  human resources

The Government plans to try out the hospital authority idea with the Port Moresby General Hospital before extending it  to other hospitals. He announced that talks are going on to increase the funding for health in the country in the 2014 budget.

Hospital board chairman Sir Theophilus Constantinou,  chief executive officer  Grant Muddle and board member Darren Young showed him the K1 miilion renovation at the hospital

Young said the hospital  would have elector beds like those in Sydney and Gold Coast, in Australia.

He  said  the hospital would recruit  trained nurses from neighbouring countries  such as Fiji to increase capacity at the hospital.