Rural facilities need funding

RURAL health facilities in the country need to be adequately funded to enable healthcare workers to look after the coronavirus (Covid-19) patients, Western Highlands mission health director Anita Kup says.
“Pressure is mounting on provincial and district hospitals from all fronts, from manpower to resources, as the pandemic continues its onslaught,” she said.
Kup said due to lack of funding, rural health facilities were unable to progress and improve their service delivery.
“Patients used to seek treatment at the Mt Hagen Hospital, but now, they go to rural health facilities because the hospital has scaled down most of its services due to the Covid-19 pandemic,” she said.
Speaking at the presentation of birthing kits and signing of memorandum of agreement for the renovation of Togoba health centre at the health facility last week, Kup said the facility received K12,000 as operational grants from the Christian health services in the past, but that was cut down to K2,000 this year, a 75 per cent cut.
“We get our funding from Christian health services, through the Health Department and with this money, we can hardly do anything to improve the facilities or pay our hardworking staff,” she said.
“Due to lack of proper funding, rural health facilities continue to face huge challenges and we are thankful to donors and non-government organisations for their continuous support.”
Kup said the mission looked after 10 health facilities and had only 14 health workers.
“It is lucky that the provincial health authority saw our needs and sent seven workers to help us.”
Seventh-day Adventist pastor Solomon Paul said the Togoba health facility served hundreds of people in Mt Hagen Central, Tambul-Nembilyer and other districts and provinces as well.
“The infrastructure were built in the 1950s and had remained the same throughout the years,” he said.