New hospital for PNG?

Medical experts arrive


By MAUREEN GERAWA

THE proposed world class hospital to be built outside Port Moresby is aimed at lifting the health care in the country and will not put pressure on the country’s existing health resources, including funds.

This is an assurance given by the United States partners in the project who are visiting the country this week to talk to various stakeholders in the $US500 million project.

Led by real estate developer Andrew Gerber, the group of nine people arrived on Sunday with the PNG ambassador to the US Evan Jeremy Paki. They began their visits to the Health Department, government officials and various institutions yesterday.

Each of these people are professionals in their own fields, but they have made a commitment to help uplift the entire country and the health care, not just for people in Port Moresby but also the health care facilities in other parts of the country, including the rural areas where the bulk of the country’s people live.

Team member and specialist in emergency medicine Dr Kelly Murphy has worked on the training of PNG medical officers in the past, especially in the rural areas and was awarded a PNG Independence medal. He said yesterday : “This is for real. We want to ensure a pregnant woman in a rural village is able to attend an antenatal clinic’’.

He said this when asked if this proposal would come to a reality for those who were not sure whether such a project would kick off, especially in light of many failed projects in the country.

Mr Gerber is working with this project as a volunteer and like others, is giving his own time and money to see our country go forward in the delivery of its health service.

He said yesterday that had it not been for people like the Secretary for the National Planning Department Joe Lelang he would not have got involved in the project in the first place.

He said Mr Lelang and various government officers as well as parliamentarians had given the team from the US a greenlight to go ahead and set up the project.

For a year or so, various team members including Mr Gerber have travelled into the country to work on the initial stages of the project.

A key component of the project will be on education and training of Papua New Guinea health work force, which the US partners in the project are ready to kick-start.

However, the team aims to ensure it works with the Health Department and its partners so that PNG’s health system does not suffer. For instance, if a hospital is to send a doctor to a US-based medical school, there should be someone on standby to replace him.

On questions regarding the funds for the new hospital, the team had assured that funds for the project would not be coming from the existing health funds.

The K20 million which the Government had put into the project was its show of commitment, but most of the funds for the hospital will be coming from outside the country, mostly through bilateral agreements and aid which this country has for so long not been able to put to good use.

The team will be meeting with Deputy Prime Minister Sir Puka Temu today.