Samek wants Wewak to set up hospital authority

 By GABRIEL FITO

THE deputy governor for East Sepik Toby Samek has called on the board and management of the Wewak General Hospital to establish a provincial hospital authority.

“The provincial government stands ready to assist the hospital but you must have a hospital authority in place so that funds could be made available to the authority to manage the hospital,” he said.

“Without it, we know that the hospital is a function of the national government through the national health department.

“I urge you to visit established hospitals such as Port Moresby and Goroka to see how their hospital authorities function so that you establish one here to get our hospital running 

effectively.”

He was responding to hospital board chairman Michael Mosoro’s comments criticising the provincial government and national MPs for failing to provide support to improve services at the hospital.

Mosoro said none of the commitments made by politicians over the years had materialised, while the provincial government had not given much consideration to the deteriorating state of the hospital infrastructure.  

“The Bank of PNG had even promised us K20,000 worth of medicine but it is almost a year now we are still waiting for these medicine to arrive,” he said.

He said more than 50% of the hospital services were sustained by donors mostly expatriates and organisations such as Oxfam International and the Sepik Ironman.