Madang Town Clinic can no longer see patients due to the deteriorating state of the facility that has not seen any maintenance for over 10 years.
Sister in Charge of the clinic says, most sections of the building are run down and no longer safe for patients.
Today the town clinic stopped seeing patients due to the worsening state of the facility. The appalling state of the building is visible to anyone who walks into the center.
The floorboards are old with cracks in most of the rooms, even the ceiling has breaks.
The ablution block is not conducive for both patients and health workers to use.
Cupboard shelves used for storing medical supplies and other necessities are infested with terminates.
Sr Alingou says in March the COVID 19 technical team had initially planned to use the town clinic as an isolation center for possible COVID19 patients.
They were asked to vacate the building and all equipment inside the clinic taken out and locked at the Madang District office in a container.
This was to allow renovation work to be carried out.
The clinic is now empty with few mats and pillows recently bought by the health officers to help them examine pregnant mothers.
A patient from Kranget island, says the town’s clinic is the only facility they get treatment from and its closure would affect them.
She explains they cannot access other clinics as most times nursing officers stationed there refuse to treat them and send them away.
Another patient from Kranget says buying medical drugs from Pharmacy is an expensive exercise for most islanders.
The Madang town clinic serves about 19 thousand people in its catchment area but also gets patients from other areas.
The Facility currently has four nursing officers and nine Community health workers.
It is important that this very vital facility remains open for the people to access. The sister in charge is appealing to the other health Centers’ to see patients and not turn them away.
Recently the Provincial Health Authority allocated K1million from its K4million 2019 rollover funds to District Health Facilities.
The Madang Town clinic sister in charge is appealing for maintenance work to be done using that money.
