The Mt Hagen Provincial Hospital this afternoon (06/06/17) released a statement revealing that the Hospital is experiencing a serious shortage of drugs and medical consumables.
Acting Chief Executive Officer of the Western Highlands Provincial Health Authority, Dr. Paulus Ripa says if the situation does not improve soon, it may have a hostile effect to the patients.
Like other hospitals and clinics in the Country, Dr Ripa said it is posing a threat to patient care.
The hospital has not been receiving all the supplies that they had ordered since the beginning of this year.
They have been receiving only 30 per cent of the items ordered to run the medical services on.
The hospital has been forced to work without surgical equipment, gloves, IV fluids, and laboratory reagents.
Without the disposable gloves, doctors and nurses are working under trying conditions to deliver babies in the labour ward.
They were also facing difficulty treating patients without necessary first line drugs and do procedures like putting in chest drains without necessary equipment to drain urine.
Yet the hospital staff are working under pressure using what is available to treat patients.
The Western Highlands Provincial Health Authority was using other means to alleviate the problem.
The Authority had approved K250, 000 from their Project Account to allow the hospital to buy urgently needed drugs, laboratory, and medical supplies.
The medicines in the pharmacy are critically low, and if they don’t receive their supply soon, the hospital will be without any medicine.
If this situation continues, the hospital will be forced to screen and diagnose patients only and refer them to private pharmacies to purchase their own drugs.
This story follows yesterday’s report by EMTV News from Lae City. The clinics have a general shortage of anti-malarial drugs and antibiotics in urban clinics.
The National Department of Health is responsible for the supplying of drugs and medical consumables but they have not been able to supply everything.
Last year, the Provincial Authority spent over K800, 000 to assist the Area Medical Store to buy drugs.
Dr Ripa urged the public to look after themselves and avoid getting sick or injured during this election period as the situation is beyond their control.
