A well-deserved honour for Calverts

SAW a lovely article in The National yesterday in relation to the renaming of the Kapuna Hospital
to Dr Peter Calvert Memorial Hospital.
This sign of respect for the Calvert family, especially to the late Dr Peter Calvert and his resilient wife Dr Lin Calvert, now aged 93, by the Gulf administration and governor, really touched my heart.
I worked as the district health officer and medical superintendent of Gulf and Kerema Hospital in 1975 and I know how tough it was to work in the rural areas then.
Their perseverance from 1949 to the present time is a character that no word in my language can appropriately describe.
I was introduced to both Dr Peter and Dr Lin by the foundation dean and professor of medicine, UPNG, Prof Ian Maddocks in the mid-1960s in Boroko and Pari village.
The Calverts and the Maddocks families, and many other doctors like Scragg, Mylius, Biddulph were very dedicated expatriates who believed in the potentials of the “natives of this country”.
They displayed love and commitment to our people in spite of all odds against them.
The Calvert’s daughter, Dr Valerie Calvert, was trained here at UPNG’s Faculty of Medicine and graduated in the mid-1970s with MBBS (UPNG).
She too has been devoted to the people of Gulf.
I often wondered why Valerie was not sent to her parents’ home university in New Zealand for her medical degree in view of the fact that our PNG qualification was unheard of in the world then; that too was an act of bravery.
Valerie’s taking on the pathway of her parents too is quite remarkable.
I take this opportunity to express my heartiest congratulations to the Calvert family for their never-ending love to our people.

Professor Sir Isi Kevau
School of Medicine and Health
Sciences
UPNG