PMGH challenged

Letters

THE Port Moresby General Hospital Radiology Unit is rife with corruption.
This particular section receives increasing number of patients each day than other medical units.
This problem paves route for bribery and back door deals to creep in.
I was a victim recently, sitting outside the x-ray for five hours from 8am-1pm without the radiologists performing scan on my month old daughter.
There are standard operating procedures and compliance processes to adhere with.
The manual registry of x-ray requests was done outside to stream patients using criteria such as age, etc and a number is registered.
Then the requests are submitted to medical data officer to register inside the x-ray rooms.
The problem starts during registry i.e. no number is given to patient, the number is given inside by the data officer.
Every patient has to wait outside for their names to be called.
As we waited for our daughter’s name to be called, we obviously saw patients coming after us were called in and served.
I wonder what criteria they had applied if I can waited for far too long with a month old daughter.
First indicator of bribery I detected was, the guard (from the contracted security firm) was not mending the gate, he was everywhere talking to patients along the corridor, and we realised that those who cooperated with the guard seem to be served quickly.
The guard was the middleman receiving bribery on behalf of the data officer or clerk and the radiologists.
As we were sitting outside patiently one lady sitting next to me said; “If you give a K10 or a K20 to the guard you will be served quickly, money is not life”.
Sitting there almost half of the day, to realise that the x-ray request form from our referral clinic was misplaced and lost as advised by the radiologist’s staff, I am of the opinion that in the course of moving requests around to serve those who have paid them some bribery money, they must have misplaced it.
As per compliant process, they cannot perform x-ray without a request form and asked to go back to our referral clinic and to be issued a new x-ray form.
We have to go back again to our referral clinic.
Health services are a critical area and such unethical practice is destroying the image of an important state service and depriving the rights of citizen to have access to fair health service.
My recommendation is the registry clerk should give numbers to patients from the outside to avoid back door deals.
The POM Gen Management should come down hard on their staff and take tougher actions on those who gain from unethical practice.
I know there a lot of hard working and good health workers out there, but only a few rotten apples who corrupt and defame the hospital’s reputation and reduce the efforts exerted by the hardworking hospital staff.

David Kawage Bitno, Pom