By Lucy Kopana – EM TV News, Lae
The Kabwum Health Center’s outpatient has been closed due to continuous medicine shortages.
Patients have been told the health center will only treat severe illnesses and attend to pregnant women.
The Kabwum health center located at the Kabwum station, in the Selepet LLG.
The health center serves a population of more than ten thousand people, with referrals from existing aid posts.
With ongoing reports about medicine shortages, EMTV Lae’s cameraman Maisen Hungito travelled to the district to see the situation on the ground.
He was taken to the dispensary by health workers where they showed him rows of empty shelves. Like the Yalumet Health Center, the Kabwum health Center has also run out of basic antibiotics and antimalarial drugs, and supplies like gauze, gloves, and syringes.
“Gavman i tok I gat marasin stap tasol mipela yet long helt senta, sub- helt senta’s na aid posts, mipela i nogat.” said Kevin Giblen, a health worker at the Kabwum Health Center.
In the ward, the EMTV crew met Dape Ate, a young mother from a village called Bomu, far from the health center. She had in her arms her second child, not more than a year old.
“First mi bin karim bebi blo mi kam daun emi bin lusim laip, em nogat marasin, nau ken mitupla kam stap em nogat marasin” Dape said.
The outpatient was closed because of the shortage. A notice is pinned up on the notice board telling patients that only pregnant women and severe illnesses will be treated.
Health workers have been giving health advise to help patients whilst others, turn to using traditional herbs and remedies to help themselves.
