Lack of cooperation worries committee

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THE Special Parliamentary Committee on Health Matters is concerned about the lack of cooperation from the Department of Health to address health issues in the country.
Committee chairman Elias Kapavore told Parliament that his team faced several limitations during their work to determine the status of health facilities in the country, particularly from the Department of Health.
“It was concerning that the committee received nil feedback and response from the Department of Health,”Kapavore said.
“On Feb 3, the committee met with the management of the Department of Health, NCDPHA (NCD Provincial Health Authority) and PMGH (Port Moresby General Hospital).
“It was noted that this was the first ever meeting to have all parties together in one venue discussing health issues in NCD.”Kapavore said this in the preliminary report by the committee after interviews, consultations, research, submissions received and general observations of the Department of Health .
The committee made the following recommendations:

  • THE Department of Health to provide to Parliament a regulation for the PHA Act 2007, the Tobacco Control Act 2015 and the Radiation Safety Control Bill 2019, by the end of this year;
  • THE Department of Health to conduct immediate Level Five facility accreditation for all hospitals in the country to ascertain their level of performance;
  • THE Department of Health to conduct immediate facility accreditation for all Level One-Level Four health facilities in the country;
  • THE Department of Health to come up with an implementation plan to make the Medical Faculty a standalone university and the copy of the plan be made available to the committee immediately;
  • ALL PHA board in line with section 28 (2) of the PHA Act 2007 submit to Health Minister Dr Lino Tom and the relevant provincial governors, annual reports for 2022 and copies to be made available to the committee immediately;
  • THE Department of Health to provide an update on the performance of all PHAs in the country and a copy of the report made available to the committee;
  • THE Department of Health to have in place a Health Workforce Plan to complement the National Health Plan 2021-2030 as a matter of priority; and,
  • THE Department of Health must have a standardised PHA structure based on the requirements of the levels and role delineation as per the national health standards.

Specialist facility needed: MP

THE Port Moresby General Hospital (PMGH) should be operating as a specialist referral, teaching and research hospital facility, says Special Parliamentary Committee on Health Matters chairman Elias Kapavore.
“PMGH is now the Level Six national specialist referral, teaching and research hospital under the National Health Plan 2021-2030.
“PMGH is expected to provide specialist healthcare services in heart, kidney, gastroenterology, cancer, advanced critical care, maternal and neonatal services, so our citizens do not travel overseas to seek those highly specialised services.”
Kapavore said this in the preliminary report by the committee after their visit to the Kumul Petroleum National Heart Centre and the Cancer Facility at PMGH in February.
“Consistent with the priority of addressing the emerging lifestyle diseases related to heart and cancer, the Government allocated K25.5 million to PMGH in 2018-2019 through the public
investment programme (PIP) to develop a comprehensive heart and cancer centre.
“The cardiac outpatient was fully upgraded and completed and is equipped with general electric cardiac equipment.
“The facility has since served 2,000 patients.
“K15.5 million has was allocated by the Government in 2018-2019 through the PIP to develop a comprehensive cancer centre.”
Based on the visit to the facilities at PMGH, the committee recommended:

  • THAT the Government look at introducing the National Specialist Referral Bill to Parliament as soon as possible;
  • THE Government review the PMGH salary structure to upgrade salary for its employees;
  • THAT the National Capital District Commission assist PMGH by taking over the function of providing mortuary services to people who died outside PMGH; and
  • THE Department of National Planning and Monitoring and Department of Treasury approve and release the K78 million public investment programme requested in the 2023 National Budget for support infrastructure that will deliver cardiac, cancer and other specialised services.