By Delly Bagu – EM TV, Port Moresby
The Secretary for the National Department of Health, Pascoe Kase, has come out to speak about the financial crisis faced by the St John Ambulance services, in Port Moresby.
In a recent media statement, Mr Kase said St John’s Ambulance has received generous funding support from the National Department of Health.
Mr Kase blamed the mismanagement of funds by the previous management for the current situation of a lack of funds for staff and operations.
The financial woes of the St John Ambulance services recently surfaced in December.
Disgruntled workers at the headquarters voiced their concerns after an internal memo said they would not be paid their salaries for the last two fortnights of the year.
Just recently the St John clinics at Gordons and Gerehu reportedly had their services affected because of financial issues.
In the statement, Mr Kase, blamed the previous management of St John’s Ambulance, for the mismanagement of funds.
“St John’s Ambulance has received generous funding support from the National Department of Health to manage Gerehu Hospital. Unfortunately, the mismanagement of funds by the previous management has led to a situation whereby they are unable to pay staff salaries and maintain quality services and Gerehu and Gordons clinics for which they have been responsible,” Mr Kase said.
He added that the current management is taking steps to address the situation and have the support of the National Department of Health.
Mr Kase said given the deteriorating management situation at the Gerehu clinic in particular, the National Department of Health has stepped in to review management and funding arrangements.
“The National Department of Health is managing the situation carefully to ensure service quality is maintained and ultimately improved for the people of NCD”.
The department is directly managing and funding the staff payroll as of December 2014, and will continue to do so until new management arrangements are in place.
Read more on this story:
St John Ambulance workers call on gov’t to intervene
St John Ambulance Stop-Work
https://youtube.com/watch?v=Ea9i9aujadE%3Ffeature%3Doembed%26wmode%3Dopaque%26showinfo%3D0%26showsearch%3D0%26rel%3D0
