Port Moresby General Hospital needs major facelift

ACCORDING to the 2011 National Health Services Standards (NHSS), Port Moresby General Hospital (PMGH) is a level-seven national referral and teaching hospital for the country.
In reality, and on the ground, it is working as a level-five hospital.
The PMGH board and management must seek funds from the Government, NGOs and businesshouses for development.
The facelift, thus far, is seen and acknowledged by everyone that has visited the hospital. The staff of this hospital can also agree on this.
The board and the management must be acknowledged for this refurbishment.
The same cannot be said of the adequacy in the supply of medical drugs, consumables and non-consumables at this hospital.
Soon, after further redevelopment and higher treatment modalities setup built, PMGH will claim its status as the level-seven hospital for PNG while also providing services of a level-five and six hospital.
For the massive redevelopment that will soon take place, no contractor and architect in PNG knows how to plan, design and build a level-seven hospital. This is a concern now.
The board and management of PMGH might think otherwise.
This statement stands to be corrected.
Any flat (schematic designs), 2D and 3D designs of the redevelopment require all parties to know what is in this planning and designing, funding and construction and hand over stages.
Funding agents need to know, the management and board need to know.
Health Department with its medical services standards division – which comprises clinical chiefs and health facilities division – need to know and play an active role.
Clinicians and staff of PMGH need to know and participate in the planning; School of Medicine and Health Sciences Faculty needs to know. In dealing with soil and earth fault lines, Works Department needs to know.
A cancer centre will also be incorporated and built, which is tremendous news for people, but stringent procedures need to be followed for safety inside and outside.
Central Supply and Tenders Board needs to know and evaluate the open tender.
For any public development, an open public tender will not discriminate the redevelopment or any development for that matter.
All stakeholders must agree first before any construction starts.
After the planners and the builders go, the end-users of the development will be clinicians, staff of this hospital and the patients who use it.
Because of this it is paramount to respect the clinicians who are
raising this issue for wider consultation.
The safety of the hospital structure, workers and patients is paramount.
For equipment and instrument, since PMGH is a Government institution, what PMGH brings in will automatically be standardised for use in other hospitals in the country.
This must be taken note of by the Health Department’s facilities division.
The other is that PNG, in particular, the public sector, which is well known for inflating purchase and construction costs.
Everyone must take heed of this.
At the end of it all, PNG wants to see a true level-seven hospital in the country. Therefore, every stakeholders should be involved.
The people of PNG and visitors alike will use Port Moresby General Hospital.
It will then indeed truly sbecome a level-seven hospital having the facilities, set-ups and manpower resources that will enable it to be national referral and teaching hospital for the country.
Any health facility development in the country should follow the guidelines outlined in the 2011 NHSS. Every hospital management and board wanting to redevelop or build a health facility should look at this NHSS.
So far, the new Gerehu Hospital development, Wewak Hospital development and Angau Memorial Hospital redevelopment have gone through this tedious, but comprehensive work guided by the 2011 NHSS guidelines.
This has resulted in a favourable outcome for each project.

Dr James Naipao
President
National Doctors Association