St John Ambulance council chairlady Dame Jean Kekedo has raised concerns over lack of laws protecting the St John Ambulance officers despite it being the only service of its type in the country.
“There are no laws protecting St John officers, making it illegal to falsely call the ambulance service or to hinder an ambulance officer from performing their duties,” Kekedo said. “There needs to be tough laws in place to protect our only ambulance first responders, our Green Angels, so they can go about saving lives,” she said.
She raised this concern following an attack on two St John ambulance officers on Saturday night in Lae while they were on duty.

A NINE-year-old girl, who was bitten by a Death Adder snake, died at a remote health facility in Western , Papua New Guinea on Tuesday, the National Newspaper reports.
There was no antivenom drugs to treat her.
Dotomona health worker Titus Yabua recalled feeling helpless with no aid to spare the girl’s life when she was first brought in.
He said everything was like a dream.
“I can still remember her smile as she was battling with the snake’s venom until she took her last breath. I was helpless, with no aid to spare her a chance to live.
“When the girl was brought to the aid post, her parents were relieved; they have finally arrived at the hospital and medical help will be provided.
“I was lost for words; how will I tell them there is no antivenom for snake bites at the clinic?

SEVEN-year-old Ismael David, who attends the New Erima Primary School in the National Capital District (NCD), had his decayed upper incisor (tooth) extracted by a volunteer dental therapist at the school grounds last week.
Mother Bella Mathew was grateful to the Youth With A Mission (YWAM) team for helping her son.
“I do not have the money to afford dental clinic and, if YWAM team did not come to David’s school, my son will not receive the dental service he got today,” Mathew said.

Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea, November 22, 2023 – Prime Minister Hon. James Marape today addressed concerns raised in Parliament by Morobe Governor, Hon. Luther Wenge, regarding the necessity of establishing a comprehensive health database and inventory to enhance healthcare delivery in rural areas.

Prime Minister Marape emphasised that creating a health database and inventory is not a challenging task and placed the responsibility on provincial health authorities to initiate and manage these crucial systems.

“I want to advise all our provincial governors that the provincial health authorities are fully autonomous and have an obligation to collect all data of patients in our provinces,” stated Prime Minister Marape.

THE Special Parliamentary Committee on Health is looking into the medicine shortage faced in hospitals in Papua New Guinea.
“My committee is consulting each PHA for updates on their boards, levels of funding to date, and the medical supplies,” chairman Elias Kapavore told The National yesterday.
“I’ve instructed my secretariat to formulate questionnaires to be answered by selected staff of PHAs.

ABOUT 1000 elementary students from Taurama, Ted Diro and Butuka schools in Port Moresby have undergone basic dental examination in the last three weeks.
Dr Naomi Asing, dentist at Port Moresby General Hospital (PMGH), said this during the last visit to Taurama Primary School last Friday.
Asing said this was made possible through the collaboration of PMGH dental clinic, University of PNG’s dentistry division consisting of residential dentists as well as graduate dentists, National Capital District education services and Colgate-Palmolive.

Blocked coronary artery can now be opened up for stenting through the Rot-ablation procedure at Port Moresby General Hospital’s (PMGH) Catheterisation Laboratory (Cath Lab) under the Kumul Petroleum National Heart Centre Programme.
According to PMGH, the first procedure of the Rot-ablation was done at the Cath Lab of PMGH last week.
Head of Cath Lab and intervention cardiologist Dr Wesong Boko said Rot-ablation is a highly specialised procedure done in major advanced Cath Labs around the world.
“During cardiac catheterisation procedure, a calcified coronary artery will rupture the balloon which dilates the coronary artery lumen to guide the insertion of coronary artery stents.
“That means the coronary artery will not dilate, making it difficult for insertion of coronary stent.
“The patient will end up not having a stent.
“These patients are usually recommended for coronary by-pass surgery.
“At the PMGH Cath Lab, we diagnosed many patients with calcified coronary arteries.

CANCER detection, prevention and cure is a very expensive undertaking that taxes most budgets.
With lack of facilities in-country, many patients seek treatment overseas in Australia, Singapore and the Philippines.
Another source for early detection, diagnosis and treatment has just opened up with the Chang Hua Christian Hospital in Taiwan.
Taipei Economic and Cultural Office in Papua New Guinea has confirmed that the hospital is available to offer medical referral services for cancer and other medical conditions requiring specialist health care that are not available in the country.

​ManOlos Aviation is working towards establishing a clinic for rural mothers near its operation base in Lae, downtown, says chief executive officer Jurgen Ruh.
Ruh said they had been in talks with the Morobe government for this initiative that would help the mothers they assist through the Mountain Area Medical Airlift (Mama) Foundation.
“Our goal for the near future is for the mothers to come out from the helicopter and go directly into that facility rather than travel another distance to Angau (Memorial Hospital),” he said.
“We are actually making progress in establishing that clinic for rural mothers which is a building next door to us.

THE cases of HIV/AIDS in Papua New Guinea has increased from 3,000 to more than 6,000 this year, an official says.
“The number of new infections is growing every year, but the number of healthcare workers and inadequate health facilities remain the same, which puts so much stress on health workers and that is a challenge,” Dr Percy Pokeya said during a HIV workshop hosted by Business for Health in Port Moresby yesterday.
“The environment itself is conducive for people to get treatment. The access to basic services is very challenging.”