By Lucy Kopana – EMTV News, Lae
The Kabwum Rural Hospital in Morobe Province is expected to ease the challenges health centres in the district face with referring patients to other bigger hospitals, says District Administrator, Fidelis Harisol. The project was launched this week, along with the districts 5- year development plan.
At the moment, the Kabwum Health Centre located at the district station, gets referrals from the smaller health centres and aid posts in the district. From there, the more serious cases are referred to the Etep Rural Hospital, in the Tewae- Siassi district or Angau in Lae.
A Community health worker, Musa Bosing, says sometimes they succeed in sending the patients to the referral hospitals when the provincial government or the health division assists them with chartered planes or choppers to airlift patients. Other times, they cannot due to the poor state of the roads.
With the new Kabwum Rural Hospital, Mr. Bosing says this will save a lot of patients. Mr. Harisol said this will reduce the burdens for referrals, including the costs involved.
“When we have the rural hospital I think it will really help the people of Kabwum to get their medical services close to the district, instead of spending a lot of money on referrals and chopper costs, especially with fuel and transport.”
