Quality health care vital

 A NEW ambulance service was commissioned into service this week.

We have a group of doctors proposing to introduce emergency medical services of a quality on par with those in Australia but for a far less cost. 

Those who are interested can register.

But it needs subsidies from the government to cover the cost of equipment, medication and quality professionals.

We were told last week that HIV and TB across the country is well above average.

Slowly, like some giant dilapidated steam engines 

just cranked into operation, the health care system is gearing into motion.

This is happening on the back of tremendous financial support from kind multilateral and bilateral donors.

And it needs to keep going and gather speed and be going places.

This needs the government to be in tip top shape, to follow through with counterpart funding where that has been agreed to, to continue with funding and other resources where successful operations suddenly are threatened when donors stop funding it for any reason; to introduce policy and legislation to bring health care up to the standards of our times; to outlay sums of money annually to maintain health facilities and to introduce new ones; and to ensure health professionals and staff are well cared for.

In the end, the adage “prevention is always better than cure” must become the government’s health care motto. 

Too many of our people are dying in the prime of their productive lives from easily preventable ailments.

Last week, we had a state funeral and said farewell to a seasoned politician and straight shooter Angoram MP Ludwig Schulze who became a statistic to an ill-equipped hospital.

Fingers from parliament are now pointing at the hospital’s ill-equipped state and also extending the blame to the claim of paying first before receiving treatment policy by some of our privately-owned hospitals.

We have all the money in the world to bring world-class medical practitioners operating in world-class hospitals, yet, the reality is dismal beyond believe.

When we try to upgrade our facilities, we are faced with roadblocks such as uncompleted projects, budget overruns and project variations. 

Maladministration, mismanagement and plain corruption are parasites which suck the life out of quality health care system in the country. They must be eradicated before the country can restore care, pride, quality and provide motivation and guidance.

The government ought to seriously be looking at streamlining the head of all major referral hospitals’ administration and boards. 

Medical equipment and medication must be the top priority. Some of the medicines being prescribed across PNG are outdated and have been replaced by far more effective medicines with minimal side effects abroad.

CT scans, ultrasound machines, MRI scans and digital X-ray systems are standard medical services available at most good hospitals worldwide but they are almost non-existent in country. 

Of course such equipment will need to be run by physicians, trained and skilled biomedical engineers, doctors and nurses.

Those pioneering skilled local medical doctors, specialists, nurses and technical officers need to be well looked after and locked into a service bond lasting between five and 10 years to ensure government gets value for money.

On top of this, there must be a committed and sustained annual funding from the budget of between K800 million and K1 billion.

Nothing is impossible. 

It can be done. 

We need committed and visionary leadership to focus on and building up primary health care systems to encourage preventive health care and kick start secondary level health care and, introducing and modernising existing facilities and building on them.