PMGH closes outpatient and dispensary

 By JUNIOR UKAHA

THERE is no more outpatient and dispensary services at the Port Moresby General Hospital (POMGH) because of renovation taking place at the hospital. 

Goiba Tienang, a senior doctor at the hospital, said there was heavy renovation and upgrading work being done at the nearby accident and emergency department and the outpatient admission area.  

Tienang said the renovation work had forced the hospital management to relocate the dispensary to the accounts department at the old wing and temporarily halt the adult outpatient department operations.

“Because of the construction work, the management has decided to relocate the dispensary to the old hospital wing,” Tienang said.

PMGH CEO Sam Vegogo also confirmed this in a notice to the staff and patient at the hospital saying: “we would like to inform the public that the pharmacy located at the adult outpatient department (AOPD) is temporarily closed and transferred to the old wing.”

The notice read: “This change is to cater for the major renovation going on at the emergency department and AOPD.”

“As a result outpatient dispensing is temporarily closed for an indefinite period,” it read.    

Tienang said the new dispensary was a storeroom and there was no outlet to dispatch prescriptions as yet.

He added that patients, who were on prescription and needed to buy drugs, must visit private pharmacies in the city or their nearest clinics. 

Neither Vegogo nor Tienang gave a date as to when the services would be restored but Tienang said everything would be “back to normal as soon as possible”.