Health care is a necessity for all of humanity, however, many in the rural communities of Papua New Guinea still lack this vital service.
Road access and limited supplies are some of the challenges faced by villagers and health workers across Papua New Guinea.
Moru Health Centre, located in Iokea village, in the East Kerema LLG, Gulf Province has been struggling with its service delivery due to lack of funding, maintenance and man power.
Despite the issue, the health centre operates normally and caters to people of Iokea and eight other neighbouring villages including Oiapu, Miaru and Apanaipi.
Sister in Charge, Jack Hove, and Community Health Worker, Serah Milaure, are the only two workers there and say much of their work has been farfetched.
With limited stuff, attending to emergency cases such as the critically ill and child birth are sometimes too much to handle, therefore, emergency ambulance services are required to transport referrals, however, Moru health centre does not have a stand in ambulance of its own.
“When the two of us are unable to attend to them, we do referrals but as you can see we don’t have a stand in ambulance so what we do is make a phone call to Malalaua or Kerema for the ambulance”
“Earlier this year, we lost one patient to snake bite, and that’s another problem”
“Most of our patients come with snake bite but we don’t have vaccines for snake bites, we always refer them to Malalaua or not we send them to Kerema, if Kerema doesn’t have vaccine, then Port Moresby”
“We are supposed to be receiving medical supplies on a quarterly basis per year, but this year, we’ve only received supplies once and we are very careful with how we distribute these supplies”
“In my point of view, that is not enough to cater for the whole nine villages”.
“I advise pregnant mothers to come in for anti-natal care but many of them don’t come and they give birth in their villages”
She says, there are no proper toilets, staff houses have leakages and the health centre’s wards are in dire need of maintenance as they are not fit to accommodate patients.
She says, it’s a good thing to talk about the challenges health workers face especially regarding work that involves service the people.
Helen Sea, EMTV News, Port Moresby
